Inferential Constructions in European Portuguese: a Corpus-based Account

The present study focuses on the inferential constructions of European Portuguese from a corpus-based perspective. Inferentials have been thoroughly studied in other languages, such as English, French, and Spanish (Delahunty 1990, 2012; Declerk 1992; Fernández Leborans 1992; Delahunty & Gatzkiewicz 2000; Pusch 2003, 2006; Calude & Delahunty 2011; Atayan & Wienen 2014; De Cesare 2018). In particular, much attention has been devoted to their form, function, and the relationship between inferentials and cleft constructions. Specifically, inferentials have been deemed part of the cleft family (Hedberg 1990; De Cesare 2017) or cleft lookalikes (Roggia 2009; De Cesare 2018). However, besides a few remarks in studies on clefts (Casteleiro 1979; Gonçalves 2001; Reichmann 2004), a description of the frequency, form, and function of inferentials in European Portuguese is yet lacking. The present study, thus, aims to fill this gap in the literature and provide an overview of the inferentials independently from their status, either as clefts or cleft lookalikes.