O marcador discursivo "desde logo" como "operador de concretização e exemplificação "

Abstract

This study analyses the use of discourse marker desde logo in Contemporary European Portuguese as an example marker (EM), sharing semanticdiscursive properties and contexts with other items, such as “por exemplo”, “concretamente”, “sobretudo”, “principalmente”, etc. Exemplification is a very frequent and important operation in discourse, involving typically the relationship between two main elements, the exemplifying one and the general one (“general element”, EM “exemplifying element”). Example markers are also frequently combined with each other and with other discourse strategies, reinforcing or specifying the pragmatic meaning. On the other hand, there are fuzzy borders between exemplification and other pragmatic functions, like reformulation, information ordering or some epistemic values. Based on the analysis of a contemporary corpus, the first results show that (i) desde logo can be used in the same typical contexts as other EM, (ii) desde logo has more similarities with EM like “sobretudo”, “principalmente” and “antes de mais nada” and (iii) due to conflict with other discursive functions, desde logo has some contextual constraints.