Prefix des-: a systematization proposal

Abstract

Taking into account that the prefixes in Portuguese were not systematized yet, hindering the learning-teaching process, it was our general aim to identify the rules that characterize the prefix des-. To accomplish it, it was identified the different semantic values to verify if they belonged to the same rule. The developed analysis had as a base, the conception of multi-dimensional words, presupposing that the formation of words includes morphological, phonological, syntax, semantic, lexicon and pragmatics componentes, and that it can only be learned in its totality if all the components are considered. The rules that give origin to the constructed words are framed from there modules: basal, which defines the morphological structures that make part of the rules: the generative, whose rules comprise morphological and semantic-categorical operations and the conventional. this theoretical model was applied to the corpus gathered at the Aurélio Dictionary, and it was possible to verify that the operator des- can be systematized in diferent semantic-categorical and semantic-categorical operations, wich permit the rules formation. Observing the established aims, it was verified that des- did not have "a single" rule, thus the analyzed data allowed us to identify five circunstances ofr the occurrence of this prefix: The first rule presents the separation semantics; the secound indicates transformation; the third characterizes contrary action; the fourth privation and fifth negation. thus it is concluded that the distinct semantic values of the prefix des- are tied to peculiar rules.