Dialogue construction in light of Humboldt's concept of energeia

Abstract

During a conversation, it is common to find a speaker unable to decide on the "right" word to express precisely what he would like to communicate in some determined moment of the interactive process of the formulation. Hence, he starts a process of search and lexical selection, frequently helped by his interlocutor, in order to build up the expected meaning, thereafter, achieve comprehension in the interaction. This fact, as well as other linguistic manifestations, exposes the lively nature of the language, pointing to Humboldt's concept of energeia. The aim of this article is to observe this lively character in conversational formulations observed in the Portuguese language and thus evidence how Humboldt´s conception of language anticipated the fundamentals of current studies of language in use.