Gramaticalização e auxiliarização na construção gaa...go do dialeto suíço-alemão

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the process of grammaticalization of the verb gaa (the verb to go) in Swiss German (schwiizerdütsch Dialekt), spoken in German-speaking Switzerland. Given the theoretical postulates of Grammaticalization (Bybee, 2003; LEHMANN, 2002; HEINE (1993) and Hopper and TRAUGOTT (1991) among others), the purpose of the study is to show that the verb gaa, besides acting as a verb of motion, it is also used as a future marker in Swiss German, becoming therefore more grammatical and more abstract, which is why this phenomenon is here treated as a case of grammaticalization (GR). Therefore, we resort to the principles of GR coined by Hopper (1991) to describe the functional behavior of the verb gaa in Swiss German and thus prove the existence of a process of ongoing GR. The research material consists of various texts and interviews published in informative newspapers, Internet blogs and TV shows in Swiss German. The data analyzed show that the verb gaa in Swiss German is able to undergo to a process of GR , with uses ranging from motion verb to a future marker ( auxiliary verb ) , covering the following continuum GR: full verb > auxiliary verb ( future marker).