TOWARDS A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION OF CO-EXTENSIVENESS IN LEXIS ORGANIZATION IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

ABSTRACT

This paper aims at identifying principles of lexis organization under a Functional Approach HALLIDAY; MCINTOSH; STREVENS, 1964 MARTIN, 1992 HALLIDAY, 2002 FIGUEREDO, 2011 based on corpus evidence. Problems with the modular and delicacy approaches to lexis – i.e., lexis as filling for grammatical structures or most delicate grammar – motivate the paper as they need further elaboration to describe the internal processes of lexis as a dimension of language, as well as lexis relations to discourse and context. The paper goes on to explain transformation processes integrating lexis and language systems, as lexis is co-extensive to the system in the grammar and register strata. Transformation processes of grammar and register are investigated and lead to the development of protocols of processes internal to lexis. Results show how the protocols can reliably account for the generation of lexical items to a given register. This, in turn, sheds light on lexis internal organization.

functional linguistics; lexis; co-extensiveness; grammar transformation; register transformation