The resultative construction [transitive clause + [até ficar + AdjP]] in Brazilian Portuguese under Castilho’s multisystemic approach

lexicalization, grammaticalization, semanticization, and discursivization

Abstract

The multisystemic approach proposed by Castilho (2010) conceives language as a complex system constituted by four autonomous systems, lexicon, grammar, semantics, and discourse, articulated by a sociocognitive device (SCD) that manages the processes of lexicalization, grammaticalization, semanticization, and discursivization, with neither hierarchy nor derivation among them, an articulation that breaks with both structuralism and linear functionalism. The article analyzes the resultative construction [transitive clause + [até ficar + AdjP]] in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), a pattern exemplified by sequences such as bata os ingredientes até ficar homogêneo (beat the ingredients until smooth), and argues that it constitutes a privileged object for demonstrating the analytical relevance of the multisystemic model applied to BP. The study rereads, in light of Castilho’s model, the data collected in the author’s doctoral thesis (Silva, 2026), which gathers 1,266 confirmed occurrences of the prototypical transitive construction, extracted from the ptTenTen23 corpus (Sketch Engine platform) and validated through manual screening and supervised machine learning models (CART tree and random forest). The construction undergoes a four-part analysis that simultaneously examines its lexical, grammatical, semantic, and discursive properties. At the level of lexicalization, the verbal (299 types) and adjectival (234 types) slots reveal highly specialized profiles, dominated by material activity verbs and gradable adjectives of texture and consistency. At the level of grammaticalization, the node até ficar exhibits traits of syntactic coalescence and functions as a telicization operator. At the level of semanticization, the construction produces an emergent resultative meaning, irreducible to its isolated components. At the level of discursivization, the concentration of 74.8% of occurrences in the instructional domain evidences its specialization as a marker of telic completion, in functional solidarity with the imperative mood (49.2% of occurrences). The simultaneous analysis of the four systems, mediated by the SCD, proves descriptively necessary to account for a pattern that escapes the categories of any isolated perspective, confirming the productivity of the multisystemic model and engaging with the scientific legacy of Ataliba T. de Castilho.