This work takes a Cognitive Linguistics perspective on Brazilian Portuguese conditional constructions. Based on mental spaces theory (FAUCONNIER, 1994FAUCONNIER, G. Mental spaces: aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994., 1997FAUCONNIER, G. Mappings in thought and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.; FAUCONNIER; SWEETSER, 1996FAUCONNIER, G.; SWEETSER, E. Spaces, worlds and grammar. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.) and on mental spaces work on conditionals (SWEETSER, 1990SWEETSER, E. From etymology to pragmatics: metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.; DANCYGIER, 1998DANCYGIER, B. Conditionals and prediction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998., DANCYGIER; SWEETSER, 2005DANCYGIER, B.; SWEETSER, E. Mental spaces in grammar: conditional constructions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.; GOMES, 2008GOMES, G. Three types of conditionals ad their verb forms in English and Portuguese. Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin; New York, v.19, n.2, p.219-240, 2008.), the research relied on recent contributions on subjectivity and intersubjectivity (LANGACKER, 1990LANGACKER, R. W. Subjectification. Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin; New York, v.1, n.1, p.5-38, 1990.; TRAUGOTT; DASHER, 2005TRAUGOTT, E.; DASHER, R. Regularity in semantic change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.; VERHAGEN 2005VERHAGEN, A. Constructions of intersubjectivity: discourse, syntax and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.), and its developments based on the notion of Base Communicative Space Network (BCSN) ( SANDERS; SANDERS; SWEETSER, 2009SANDERS, J.; SANDERS, T.; SWEETSER, E. Causality, cognition and communication: a mental space analysis of subjectivity in causal connectives. In: SANDERS, T.; SWEETSER, E. (Ed.). Causal categories in discourse and cognition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009. p.19-59.; FERRARI; SWEETSER, 2012FERRARI, L.; SWEETSER, E. Subjetivity and upwards projection in mental space structure. In: DANCYGIER, B; SWEETSER, E. (Ed.). Viewpoint in language: a multimodal perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. p.47-68.). Drawing on written corpus data, which includes journalistic and literary texts, we focus on conditionals which may alternate between the future of the subjunctive and the present of the indicative, in the protasis, and between the present and the future of the indicative, in the apodosis. Four groups of conditionals were identified that displayed distinct relations between mood/tense selection and cognitive motivations. The main contribution of the paper is that it provides a unified framework for relating tense/mood alternations in conditionals to the speaker´s subjective and/or intersubjective perspective.
Cognitive Linguistics; Mental spaces; Conditionals; Tense; Subjectivity
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