O tratamento conferido à classe das conjunções em gramáticas antigas de língua portuguesa

Abstract

The present study evaluates the treatment conferred to conjunctions in the Portuguese grammatical tradition (mainly works from the 18th and 19th centuries) aiming at verifying the criteria and parameters that constitute this particular part of speech. This study enters the territory of conjunctions through the consideration of how it is configured, described and explored by the authors under examination; and, based on the information gathered, the study explicates the criteria (syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) that come into play in the definition and characterization of the class of conjunctions. Ultimately this paper defends that traditional grammars constitute a fertile zone for a conscientious and responsible evaluation of linguistic facts.