A admiração à luz dos corpos

This paper studies the field of admiração in their two meanings in Portuguese, namely: veneration/respect and surprise, using the framework suggested in Belinda Maia’s PhD thesis (Maia 1994/1996). After presenting briefly her findings and methodology, we investigate (i) the distribution of the vague words of the field of admiração by the two meanings, and discuss the heuristics used in its rule-based distinction; (ii) the distribution of admiração by genre, tense and person; (iii) its presence in negative sentences; and (iv) its antonym(s).