Papers by Nélia Alexandre
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 3, 2023
Languages, Feb 29, 2024
This paper investigates the formation of spatial locative relativization in three African varieti... more This paper investigates the formation of spatial locative relativization in three African varieties of Portuguese. While research on relative constructions in Portuguese has deserved considerable attention in the literature, it tends to focus on the European and Brazilian varieties, with locative relativization being only marginally addressed. Using data extracted from spoken corpora of contemporary, urban varieties of Angolan, Mozambican, and Santomean Portuguese, we aim to discuss whether there is a correlation between syntactic and semantic variables and the selection of the two main locatively used relative morphemes, onde 'where' and que 'that'. Overall, the three varieties at stake behave similarly with respect to the analyzed syntactic variables and follow the tendency found in Portuguese varieties toward the use of pied-piping and P-chopping as the dominant relativization mechanisms, independent of the syntactic relation between the antecedent and the relative clause. Semantically, we identified some fine-grained differences between the three varieties, with Santomean Portuguese generally being the outlier or one of the outliers. Crucially, definiteness of the head noun stands out as the one variable that plays a major role in the selection of the relative morpheme: [-definite] head nouns show a proportionally higher preference for que in both AP and STP, which is particularly visible with bare nouns in the latter. This motivates the hypothesis that less specified head nouns show a preference for the un(der)specified relative morpheme que. We further show that the role of language contact is at best very limited.
Second Language Research
This article reports on an experimental study on the acquisition of prepositional relative clause... more This article reports on an experimental study on the acquisition of prepositional relative clauses in second language European Portuguese by Chinese native speakers. It focuses on the role of resumption, mandatory in prepositional relative clauses in Chinese (the native language of the learners) and non-conventional in European Portuguese (the target language). Results of an oral production task and two online acceptability judgment tasks indicated that resumption does not transfer from the native language, and that Chinese learners of European Portuguese employ movement structures to produce and process relative clauses. Additionally, results showed that resumptive pronouns do not rescue or ameliorate ungrammatical extractions from islands, contrary to what is traditionally assumed in grammatical theory. This finding was kept constant across participants, native and non-native. Overall, we conclude that second language speakers are able to select and reassemble movement features in...
Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística
This paper has two major goals. The first one is to present a summary of some of the studies whic... more This paper has two major goals. The first one is to present a summary of some of the studies which have been conducted on the L2 acquisition of syntactic properties in European Portuguese within a generative framework, considering the research questions, the phenomena, and the learner profiles which have been investigated, the methodologies used, and the main conclusions which have been reached by these studies. Building on this summary, our second goal is to identify some of the gaps in the existing research and to propose some ideas for future work.
O objectivo deste artigo é o de apresentar uma descrição das interrogativas-Q em Crioulo de Cabo ... more O objectivo deste artigo é o de apresentar uma descrição das interrogativas-Q em Crioulo de Cabo Verde (CCV – variedade de Santiago). Mostrar-se-ão as estratégias de formação de interrogativas-Q que a língua disponibiliza, tentando avaliar o impacto da escolha de uma em detrimento de outra. A questão central deste artigo é saber se o processo de formação de interrogativas-Q em CCV envolve ou não movimento-Q, i.e., saber se numa dada posição sintáctica há Merge de uma palavra/sintagma-Q e se depois ele é movido por Attract para SpecCP para verificar, através de uma relação de Agree, os traços formais de Cº
EDUFAL, 2013
Em línguas ibéricas de sujeito nulo, encontra-se em estruturas de controlo não obrigatório um tip... more Em línguas ibéricas de sujeito nulo, encontra-se em estruturas de controlo não obrigatório um tipo de infinitivo especial, que co-ocorre com sujeito expresso. No caso do galego e do português europeu, esse infinitivo apresenta marcas de concordância de pessoa e número-e denomina-se infinitivo flexionado; no caso do espanhol, o infinitivo não exibe marcas de flexão-e recebe a denominação de infinitivo pessoal. Neste artigo, mostramos que o caboverdiano, uma língua nascida do contacto de línguas africanas da cintura do macro-Sudão com o português médio e clássico, partilha com as línguas ibéricas de sujeito nulo e com a variedade vernacular do português brasileiro a construção de infinitivo pessoal. Com efeito, ocorrem infinitivos pessoais em dados de produção espontânea de crianças
Probus, 2015
In this paper, we present extended argumentation against a raising analysis for every type of rel... more In this paper, we present extended argumentation against a raising analysis for every type of relative clauses. Specifically, we argue that purpose relative clauses involve raising of a null operator to Spec,CP, contrary toAfter showing that all purpose relatives in European Portuguese are CPs, we present several arguments in favor of a null operator analysis of this type of structure. First, we show that parasitic gap effects support the existence of a variable in object purpose relatives and in VP adjunct purpose clauses with an object gap. We then show that Principle A effects in object purpose relatives allow to distinguish this type of relatives from
Journal of Language Contact, 2010
have been concerned with identifying African features in Cape Verdean Creole, a conveniently arra... more have been concerned with identifying African features in Cape Verdean Creole, a conveniently arranged overview of Africanisms had been missing to date. L'élément africain dans la langue capverdienne (henceforth L'élément africain) has now rectified this situation. In the volume under review, African features are analyzed and interpreted in the light of the formation and development of the creole. L'élément africain focuses on the Santiago variety of Cape Verdean creole. The author postulates that the creole originated on Santiago and that 'the variety spoken there is probably the one that, at all levels of the grammar, presents the most remnants of African languages' (p. 18). 1 During his several years of research on Santiago, Quint (henceforth Q.) has acquired near-native command of the basilectal variety, locally known as badiu. Manuel Veiga notes in his preface to L'élément africain that 'some still highlight the Lusitanian origin of Cape Verdean Creole and underestimate its African character'. Indeed, until quite recently, scholars routinely drew attention to the presumably modest number of African retentions in Cape Verdean Creole. This view was based, at least in part, on the fact that the acrolectal and de-africanized variety of Barlavento has often been taken as representative of the whole of Cape Verdean Creole (cf. Morais-Barbosa 1975). However, it is rather the more basilectal and less lusitanized Sotavento varieties in general and the Santiago variety in particular that should be given priority in studies concerned with the formation of the creole. Q. 's decision to give his book a bilingual (French/Portuguese) format is commendable, as it renders it accessible to Cape Verdeans as well as the considerable Cape Verdean minorities residing in France and Senegal. Moreover, a condensed version in English will appear later this year (Quint to appear). The praiseworthy aim of reaching a wider public has not had negative consequences, as the author 1. All quotes are my translations from the original.
The analysis of Cape Verdean Creole shows that the language exhibits several complementizers (di,... more The analysis of Cape Verdean Creole shows that the language exhibits several complementizers (di, ki, ma, pa, pamodi, si and Æ) that type the sentences they introduce, in the sense of Cheng’s (1991) Clausal Typing Hypothesis. The relative order between ki ‘that’ / di ‘of’ and Topics / Focus constitutes evidence against the need for an expansion of the left periphery (against Rizzi, 1997). Therefore, I assume that these elements are merged in Cº and come from the Numeration with a bundle of formal features ([D], [V], [Q], [Wh] and [T]) that need to be checked (by Agree).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Journal of Ibero-Romance Creoles, 2019
A. J. Ribeiro, H. Schuchardt's first Capeverdean informant, wrote a theatre play in Capeverde... more A. J. Ribeiro, H. Schuchardt's first Capeverdean informant, wrote a theatre play in Capeverdean Creole (CVC) - A mi qué bóde! 'I am a toughie!' - which he sends him in one of the letters the two men exchanged and which are now part of the holdings of the Hugo Schuchardt Archiv (https://schuchardt.uni-graz.at). In this article, this small work is the point of departure for the discussion of two issues: (i) the fact that late-19th century CVC (Santiago variety) already displayed features which we can observe in the current synchrony of the language, and (ii) the claim that contact with Portuguese, more or less visible according to the profile of the informant, has always characterised CVC.
The topic of this paper is the ki/ma alternation in Cape Verdean Creole (henceforth, CVC) with a ... more The topic of this paper is the ki/ma alternation in Cape Verdean Creole (henceforth, CVC) with a focus on the behavior of ki within wh-questions. We argue that ki is a morphosyntactic reflex of Q-agreement between [uQ] on C and a wh-phrase, supporting spec-head agreement in Chomsky (1991), contra the probe-goal agreement system in Chomsky (2000). In so doing, we provide evidence for its position in C and show that in the absence of operator movement and Q-agreement on C, an alternative particle, ma/kuma, appears in C. We show that the symmetric patterns of extraction observed in CVC where the complementizer ki can appear when either the subject or object are extracted, may be in part reducible to a contrast in locality constraints on Agree and can be better explained within a spec-head relation framework for CVC.
The syntax of wh-questions has been largely investigated for several languages, basically focusin... more The syntax of wh-questions has been largely investigated for several languages, basically focusing on their movement operations. In this paper I resort to wh-questions in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) to illustrate a further syntactic aspect of these constructions, namely, the formation of resumptive and defective wh-chains. I suggest that these two chains are distinct from one another and, digging into their formal properties and assuming Boeckx’s (2003) theory of resumption, I argue for a movement analysis of defective whchains.
... (i) Tipos de orações relativas em Crioulo de Cabo Verde (cf. secção 2.); (ii) Estratégias de ... more ... (i) Tipos de orações relativas em Crioulo de Cabo Verde (cf. secção 2.); (ii) Estratégias de relativização em CCV (cf. ... Considerando o Quadro 1., a questão que se coloca é a desaber em que condições é adoptada cada uma das estratégias. ...
... estátua Nb NP ! 2 [+forte] CP NP 5 4 que o João partiu ti A partir de (6), pode concluir-se q... more ... estátua Nb NP ! 2 [+forte] CP NP 5 4 que o João partiu ti A partir de (6), pode concluir-se que uma análise à Cinque (1995) não dá conta ... (9c)). (8) a. O(s) rapaz(es) / A(s) rapariga(s) b. El(los) niño(s) / La(s) niña(s) c. Le(s) garçon(s) / La(les) fille(s) (9) a. The boy / the(*s) boys ...
Letras de Hoje, 2006
1. Introdução Partindo de algumas análises no quadro da Gramática Generativa das construções que ... more 1. Introdução Partindo de algumas análises no quadro da Gramática Generativa das construções que envolvem movimento-A’, como as orações relativas, interrogativas e clivadas, e que têm sido feitas para o Português Europeu (PE) e para o Português Brasileiro (PB), o objectivo deste artigo é apresentar dados do Crioulo de Cabo Verde (CCV – variante de Santiago) que mostram que esta língua de base lexical portuguesa disponibiliza estratégias semelhantes às variedades do Português referidas, convergindo e/ou divergindo daquelas em alguns aspectos. Pretende-se ainda chamar a atenção para o facto de, nas construções e línguas em estudo, parecer haver gramáticas em competição, condicionada pelos traços de que/ki, deixando aos falantes a opção de escolha de uma delas.
Neste trabalho, discutimos algumas hipóteses sobre o papel do input na aquisição, em particular s... more Neste trabalho, discutimos algumas hipóteses sobre o papel do input na aquisição, em particular sobre os efeitos da frequência no input. Levantaremos um problema metodológico aos trabalhos que usam a frequência no input como hipótese explicativa da ordenação dos estádios na ...
Resumo: Em comparacao com outras linguas naturais, as linguas crioulas tem a especificidade de se... more Resumo: Em comparacao com outras linguas naturais, as linguas crioulas tem a especificidade de serem linguas de formacao recente. Diversos autores, como por exemplo Bickerton (e.g. 1981, 1984) e McWhorter (e.g. 1998, 2001, 2005) consideram, embora sob um prisma distinto, que a historia social ‘especial’ dos crioulos tem como contrapartida o facto de estas linguas apresentarem um leque de propriedades linguisticas comuns. A nossa comunicacao incide sobre os crioulos de base lexical portuguesa da Alta Guine e do Golfo da Guine, que constituem duas familias linguisticas distintas, de formacao independente, e tem por objectivo mostrar tendencias de convergencia e de divergencia a nivel da estrutura sintactica. *** Abstract: Compared to other natural languages, creole languages are specific in the sense that they are young languages. Several authors, such as Bickerton (e.g. 1981, 1984) and McWhorter (e.g. 1998, 2001, 2005) consider, albeit in distinct ways, that the ‘special’ social hist...
Uploads
Papers by Nélia Alexandre