Post Scriptum: A Digital Archive of Ordinary Writings (Early Modern Portugal and Spain)

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Publications

Construções comparativas em português: porque algumas são mais iguais que outras

Publication . Pereira, Sandra; Pinto, Clara; Pratas, Fernanda

In Portuguese comparative constructions of inequality, either do que or que may be the syntactic heads of the Degree Clause. There are, however, differences in their distribution: do que is allowed in all contexts, whereas que is barred whenever the Degree Clause includes a finite verb phonologically realized. In the present paper we claim that all canonical comparative constructions in European Portuguese include two full clauses and that, whenever some constituents of the Degree Clause are phonologically null, what we have is a case of ellipsis, whose extent is different for do que and que.

2014Conference object

Open access

Escritura epistolar, edición digital y anotación de corpus

Publication . Vaamonde, Gael

In this paper we present the project Post Scriptum, which aims to build up a campaign of collection, edition and historical-linguistic study of private letters written in Portugal and Spain along the Early Modern Ages. Not only does the Post Scriptum Project present a wide collection of private letters, but it also makes it available as a scholarly digital edition and as an annotated corpus. Key aspects about the development of Post Scriptum are explained in this paper, from the finding of manuscripts in historical archives to the digital edition and semi-automatic annotation of texts and their publication online. Final results and some examples that illustrate how the exploitation of this corpus works at different linguistic levels are also included.

2018Journal article

Open access

Concessivas num corpus da Idade Moderna

Publication . Costa, Ana Luísa

Based on a corpus linguistics analysis, this study proposes a description of the syntactic distribution and semantic functioning of three concessive connectives in a Portuguese epistolary corpus from Early Modern Ages, the P.S. Post Scriptum. These connectives, embora, mesmo que and ainda que, are considered the most frequent conjunctions in Contemporary European Portuguese. Corpus analysis reveals a different diachronic path for each one. In the beginning of the 20th century, while embora frequency of use grows, it is evident the decrease of ainda que, with consequences in the concessive conjunctions system.

2015Journal article

Open access

Estas Duas Regras: Construção da referência em cartas

Publication . Costa, Ana Luísa

The analysis of epistolary discourse produced by less skilled writers provides textual data to distinguish private writing from public writing. Further, it contributes to the discussion on the divide between the private and the public sphere in the Early Modern Ages (the corpus that was searched includes familiar letters written between 1601 and 1833). The contrast between the linguistic choices in formulaic parts and in free compositional sequences brings some light into a strong genre awareness, dominating even in the most spontaneous piece of writing. Self- -textual references and references to other letters appear as specific cohesion strategies in private letters.

2014Journal article

Open access

Post Scriptum: Archivo Digital de Escritura Cotidiana

Publication . Vaamonde, Gael; Costa, Ana Luísa; Marquilhas, Rita; Pinto, Clara; Pratas, Fernanda

Post Scriptum: A Digital Archive of Ordinary Writings (P.S.) is a project that aims to collect and publish Portuguese and Spanish private letters written along the Modern Ages. These documents are unpublished epistolary writings, written by authors from different social backgrounds. They could be either masters or servants, adults or children, men or women, thieves, soldiers, artisans, priests, political activists, among other kinds of social agents. Their epistolarity survived by chance, when their paths met the persecution means used by the Inquisition and the civil courts, two institutions that used private correspondence as criminal evidence. These textual resources often present an (almost) oral rhetoric, treating everyday issues of past centuries in a register that hasn’t been easy to study, apart from brief examples. In the proposed paper, discussion over the methodological options that lead to the digital edition available online will be raised. Further, the modernization of texts the POS and syntactic annotation will be explained. The aim is to develop a diachronic and annotated corpus that could be used as an electronical resource for linguistic and historical research of Spanish and Portuguese.

2014Journal article

Open access