Pseudo e teca na formação de palavras em Português

Abstract

The goal of this investigation is to analyze the process of word formation in contemporary European Portuguese from neoclassical elements, specifically the use of two Greek forms – ‘pseudo’ and ‘teca’. We intend, through it, to check the properties that these two elements assume in contemporary Portuguese, in order to verify whether they can be classified as simple compositional elements or whether they assume characteristics that are typical from affixes, standing, thus, between the processes of compounding and derivation. Thus, we will question whether we are dealing with processes of compounding in Portuguese or if we are facing morphological changes that are causing the appearance of forms with derivational characteristics. After this, we will examine the treatment of these forms in dictionaries and grammars, in order to obtain diachronic data and will briefly observe the processes of derivation and compounding. Afterwards, we will analyze words taken from two databases - CETEMPúblico and Corpus Davies/Ferreira – in order to verify if the behavior of these forms is or is not in line  with the characteristics they have traditionally been assigned.