Foreword

Abstract

In spite of the variety of topics addressed in this issue of the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, the four articles share a combination of concerns in linguistic work that I attach great importance to, and, as a consequence, strongly recommended as editor. One of them is the fondness for systematicness in the identification and characterization of the subjects under study, and more specifically of the constructions they involve. This attitude is, of course, not always viable, unproblematic, or even recommended, particularly with theoretically groundbreaking work, or when genuine findings (which are and will continue to be possible in linguistics, even regarding a particular language like Portuguese) are being disclosed. But when there is room for tentative systematic accounts, they should always be pursued.