Subject pronoun + verb in the gerund in Instagram posts

Abstract

This study analyzes seven Instagram feed posts whose captions, written in Brazilian Portuguese, reflect the multimodal nature of digital language. The focus is on constructions featuring the sequence [subject pronoun + verb in the gerund], as exemplified by: “eu acordando depois de ter amamentado a noite inteira (me waking up after breastfeeding the whole night): [Hello Kitty balloon, deflated, walking]”. It is argued that such constructions are not commonly found in Brazilian Portuguese, either in spoken or written modalities, and differ from the phenomenon known as gerundismo, as in “vou estar ligando para a senhora” (“I will be calling you, ma’am”), which has been widely discussed in the literature (Torres; Coan, 2016). The main objective is to describe and analyze these occurrences and to investigate their possible classification within existing uses of the gerund in Brazilian Portuguese (Braga; Coriolano, 2009). According to Bechara (2009), the gerund expresses simultaneous or subsequent actions. Diniz Cunha Alves and Chaves (2020) highlight its creative use in digital genres such as sponsored posts. This study hypothesizes that the multimodal nature of Instagram posts encourages constructions that aim to briefly and dynamically represent a subject in action, in synchrony with the moment of enunciation.