This paper aims to analyze the semantic-enunciative functioning of the verb cair in Brazilian Portuguese, seeking to demonstrate that the diversity of values associated with this lexical unit does not correspond to isolated senses, but rather to contextually stabilized actualizations of a single operative principle. The theoretical framework is grounded in Antoine Culioli’s Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations (1990, 1999), according to which meaning is not given in a fixed way, but is constructed through language operations. In the same direction, the study engages with Franckel and Paillard (1998, 2007) by articulating semantic variation and invariance, and with Romero (2011) regarding the relevance of epilinguistic activity to linguistic analysis. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, descriptive-interpretive study based on utterances constructed by the authors and organized through controlled contrasts involving subjects, complements, and prepositional phrases, in order to highlight shifts in semantic value. The results indicate that the verb cair functions as an operator of transition between states, marking, across different domains, the loss of stability, support, control, intensity, or availability. Thus, uses such as sports relegation, bank crediting, temporal coincidence, scalar decrease, subjective yielding, and technological deactivation reveal an operative coherence underlying the apparent semantic dispersion.
