Neologisms with –aço suffix in Brazilian Portuguese

a functional perspective

Abstract

In the light of a theoretical framework based on systemic-functional linguistics (SFL), the present article aims at investigating the process of formation of contemporary neologisms in Brazilian Portuguese by the addition of the suffix – aço to nominal bases, whether or not they are Portuguese. . The corpus analized is comprised of digital news articles, obtained from Brazilian online publications, such as, newspapers and, published between 2016 and 2018. With this proposal in mind, a brief review of literature is presented in an attempt to illustrate the rationale underlying the use of and semantic values ascribed to the suffix in questions in grammar books and textbooks on linguistics. This description was carried out in order to verify whether the current uses of this affix are in accordance with those found in specialised compendia. The analysis allowed not only for the verification of the polysemic functioning of the affix, but also, in certain circumstances, for its metaphorisation due to the tension established in different linguistic strata, be it in the interpersonal metafunction, or in the ideational metafunction stances.