... Um exemplo é o caso da mudança do sistema morfológico de Casos do inglês medieval que resulto... more ... Um exemplo é o caso da mudança do sistema morfológico de Casos do inglês medieval que resultou na ... propriedades morfológicas são visíveis. ... Os princípios sintáticos pertencem ao nível universal, as possibilidades da realização deles levam aos Page 6. 6 ...
This paper focuses on the status of de in Romance indefinites, partitives and pseudopartitives. I... more This paper focuses on the status of de in Romance indefinites, partitives and pseudopartitives. It argues that there is neither a 'partitive article' nor a 'partitive preposition' in syntax. De in Romance indefinites is the overt Spell-Out of an abstract operator DE that cancels the definiteness of articles and is responsible for indefiniteness. De in Romance partitives is the overt Spell-Out of a RELATOR head that takes a definite DP as complement and a QP in the specifier position. Finally, pseudopartitivity is shown to have crosslinguistic parallels with indefinites, and it is derived by postulating a mono-projectional analysis in which a semilexical N selects for a DE-phrase, in exactly the same way that quantifiers and cardinals select for indefinite DE-phrases.
Animacy features have been known to trigger syntactic phenomena. In this paper,<br> I focus... more Animacy features have been known to trigger syntactic phenomena. In this paper,<br> I focus on differential object marking (DOM), and the null object in Brazilian<br> Portuguese, where such features are relevant. I assume that animacy corresponds to<br> a specification of Person features, and lack of animacy implies that no Person<br> features are encoded in a DP. Furthermore, I propose that animacy is encoded in a<br> dedicated functional head. Animate DPs (i.e. DOM in Spanish and animate objects<br> in BP) move to Spec, FPanimacy , a projection above V, below v, to check a person<br> feature. Crucially, inanimate DPs stay in situ. They are not DOM marked in Spanish<br> and, by virtue of being low, they can be licensed as DP ellipsis in BP. This<br> analysis may contribute to work seeking to grasp the role of referential hierarchies in<br> syntax.
Spanish, European Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese allow two possible linear orders for the d... more Spanish, European Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese allow two possible linear orders for the direct object (DO) and indirect object (IO) in ditransitives: DO>IO and IO>DO. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we show that the arguments supporting a Double Object Construction (DOC) in these languages are inconclusive on both semantic and structural grounds. Accordingly, we claim that there is no DOC in these three languages. Second, we provide evidence that DO>IO and IO>DO are derivationally related. We show that DO>IO is the base order and that IO>DO is the result of an information structure operation, the latter order being possible only when IO conveys given information in the discourse and occupies the specifier of a low-periphery TopP. We offer a unified analysis that contributes to a comparative understanding of ditransitives in Romance.
Contribuições à descrição e ao ensino do Português Brasileiro: da fonética ao discurso, com parada obrigatória na sintaxe – uma homenagem a Maria Eugênia Lammoglia Duarte, 2021
The null object/overt pronoun split in Brazilian Portuguese has been assimilated to differential ... more The null object/overt pronoun split in Brazilian Portuguese has been assimilated to differential object marking in some functionalist accounts (Schwenter and Silva 2002, Schwenter 2006). This paper examines further arguments for this connection; we evaluate a battery of more formal diagnostics under which the Brazilian Portuguese data pattern similarly to canonical instances of prepositional marking across Romance (Romanian, Spanish etc.). The application of other tests weakens the assumption of a unique licensing position for differentially marked objects in Romance languages.
This book offers a comprehensive account of dative structures across languages –with an important... more This book offers a comprehensive account of dative structures across languages –with an important, though not exclusive, focus on the Romance family. As is well-known, datives play a central role in a variety of structures, ranging from ditransitive constructions to cliticization of indirect objects and differentially marked direct objects, and including also psychological predicates, possessor or causative constructions, among many others. As interest in all these topics has increased significantly over the past three decades, this volume provides an overdue update on the state of the art. Accordingly, the chapters in this volume account for both widely discussed patterns of dative constructions as well as those that are relatively unknown.
Tem sido proposto na literatura que o “problema logico da aquisicao da linguagem” para o aprendiz... more Tem sido proposto na literatura que o “problema logico da aquisicao da linguagem” para o aprendiz de L2 e o mesmo que o aprendiz de L1 enfrenta (White 1982, 1995).Este trabalho e uma analise do problema. Primeiramente, mostro as varias posicoes na literatura sobre a aquisicao de L2. Em seguida, descrevo os resultados de uma pesquisa em andamento (Cyrino, 1996) cujo objetivo e investigar a acessibilidade da Gramatica Universal para aprendiz de L2.
In this paper we present an original approach to analyze the compositionality of indefinite expre... more In this paper we present an original approach to analyze the compositionality of indefinite expressions in Romance by investigating the relevance of their syntactic distribution in relation to their meaning. This approach has the advantage of allowing us to explore the question of how syntactic structure can determine the meaning of different forms of indefiniteness. To that end, we postulate a common derivation for bare plurals, bare mass and de phrases, whereby an abstract operator de is adjoined to definite determiners and shifts entities into property-type expressions. Quantificational specificity is proposed to be derived from a syntactic structure in which weak quantifiers select for indefinite de-phrases, no matter whether de is overt at Spell-Out or not; these quantifiers turn properties into generalized quantifiers. The anti-specificity meaning of some indefinites is derived by adjoining in the syntactic structure an abstract operator alg that encodes the speaker’s epistemi...
Brazilian Portuguese and the Null Subject Parameter, 2000
... KATO, Mary A. (1993) The Distribution of Null and Pronominal objects in Brazilian Portuguese.... more ... KATO, Mary A. (1993) The Distribution of Null and Pronominal objects in Brazilian Portuguese. ... Romance Languages: Selected Papers from the XXI Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series), 225-35, Amsterdam: John Benjamins ...
Data from English show that VP ellipsis only occurs when, in Syntax, a verbal element is in a fun... more Data from English show that VP ellipsis only occurs when, in Syntax, a verbal element is in a functional head that locally c-comands the ellipsis. However, if we accept this analysis, we cannot explain languages in which T and C have uninterpretable features that force the verb to move beforeSpell Out but do not allow VP ellipsis, as in Spanish, French and German. In this paper we defend that whatever determines parametric variation in VP ellipsis is related to whether or not the verbal element that occupies the licensing functional head locally c-commands the immediate projection that is interpretedas the sentence verbal predicate. If there is an intervening projection between the licensing node and the projection interpreted as the sentence verbal predicate, VP ellipsis is not possible. We will rely on parametric differences involving AspP, showing that languages will vary in allowing Asp to be an extension of vP, and hence permitting or not VP ellipsis.
Current understanding of syntactic variation and change relies on the notion of parameters of var... more Current understanding of syntactic variation and change relies on the notion of parameters of varying magnitude (micro- and macroparameters). This chapter focuses on the flipside of parameter change, namely the retention and survival of synthetic morphological structure in a context of widespread analyticization. The global effects of synthetic-to-analytic drift are examined in two diachronic scenarios: one in which the process has almost, though not entirely been completed (Coptic Egyptian), and another one in which the process is still under way (Brazilian Portuguese). Coptic has gone very far in abandoning its former synthetic features and thus exhibits a high degree of analyticity. In Brazilian Portuguese, the analyticization process is an advanced state, with synthetically inflected tenses exhibiting a decreasing productivity and gradually being replaced by the corresponding auxiliary verb constructions in the spoken language. The restriction on verb movement is a side effect o...
I analyze clitic climbing as the effect of Romance syntactic complex predicate formation: the non... more I analyze clitic climbing as the effect of Romance syntactic complex predicate formation: the non-finite verb phrase moves to the specifier of the upper V. This movement forms a complex predicate so as to allow for a configuration where clitics can climb. Crucial for this movement is the presence of a defective C-T. The lack of clitic climbing in Brazilian Portuguese is but one consequence of a non-defective C-T system in these structures. As a consequence, we have the possibility for certain constructions to occur in the language; in fact, they are presented as additional evidence for the proposal.KEYWORDS: Clitic climbing. Syntactic complex predicates. ECM. Inflected infinitives. Brazilian Portuguese. Principles & Parameters Theory.
Sabe-se que o português brasileiro (PB) permite objetos nulos cujos antecedentes são inanimados. ... more Sabe-se que o português brasileiro (PB) permite objetos nulos cujos antecedentes são inanimados. Porém, há certas sentenças que parecem desafiar essa generalização. Essas sentenças também permitem pronomes plenos na posição do objeto. Neste trabalho, defendo que a lacuna nessas sentenças não é o objeto nulo característico do PB, ou seja, não há aí uma elipse de DP. A questão, portanto, é como diferenciá-las (i) daquelas contendo o verdadeiro objeto nulo; e (ii) daquelas que só permitem o pronome pleno. Para discutir essas questões, o trabalho tem como base o arcabouço teórico gerativista e parte de recentes propostas para diferentes tipos de tópico, dentro de uma visão cartográfica (FRASCARELLI; HINTERHÖLZ, 2007). Comparando os objetos nulos do PB com o hebraico (ERTESCHIK-SHIR et al., 2013), assumo que diferentes tipos de tópico devem ser distinguidos em termos de seu papel no discurso. O PB, no entanto, não se assemelha ao hebraico em relação ao fenômeno de queda do tópico. Essa d...
Inflectional languages, and Romance languages in particular, display morphological variation in p... more Inflectional languages, and Romance languages in particular, display morphological variation in plural marking within the nominal domain. While standard varieties show plural inflection on all the constituents within the DP, other varieties show this plural marking only on some of its constituents. We investigate a set of puzzling data and propose that Number in Romance is not a head, but an adjunct, an optional and bi-valent morphosyntactic feature. We single out the hypothesis that, within the nominal domain, the PLURALIZER is in unmarked cases adjoined to D (i.e., a categorized d root), and in marked cases it is adjoined to a noun or an adjective (i.e., a categorized n/a root). We also discuss that instantiations of plural marking within the nominal domain should be conceived as the output of morphophonological concord, a post-syntactic operation that is sensitive to c-command.
Uma observação recorrente no estudo da realização do objeto direto em algumas línguas românicas r... more Uma observação recorrente no estudo da realização do objeto direto em algumas línguas românicas reside no fato de que traços de animacidade parecem determinar a forma que o objeto toma. Neste trabalho, investigo fenômenos que envolvem o traço animacidade e que foram observados separadamente na literatura sobre as línguas românicas: Marcação Diferencial do Objeto, leísmo e a Restrição Caso-Pessoa. O objetivo foi analisar esses fenômenos em comparação com o objeto nulo do português brasileiro, com a finalidade de determinar o papel que a animacidade tem na sintaxe. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstram que, de fato, a animacidade é relevante para a sintaxe. A partir desses resultados, avanço uma proposta que pretende dar conta dos fenômenos investigados e dá suporte a uma abordagem formal para as hierarquias de referencialidade encontradas na literatura não-formalista.
Como é sabido, o espanhol é uma língua românica que requer que certos objetos diretos (OD) sejam ... more Como é sabido, o espanhol é uma língua românica que requer que certos objetos diretos (OD) sejam morfologicamente marcados por a, a chamada Marcação Diferencial do Objeto (DOM). Em outras línguas românicas, tais como o português europeu e brasileiro, por outro lado, objetos diretos animados não são geralmente marcados. Contudo, vários estudos diacrônicos mostram que a marcação morfológica por a do objeto direto era possível nos séculos XVI a XVIII em português, e houve um declínio nesse uso a partir dessa época. Interessantemente, no português brasileiro a marcação do objeto direto por a é ainda possível (ou opcional) em alguns contextos restritos. Neste trabalho, observo o espanhol e o português brasileiro para mostrar que essas línguas são diferentes com relação à marcação por a do objeto direto, mas semelhantes com relação ao fato de que objetos diretos animados são computados externamente ao vP. O trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão dos efeitos da animacidade do objeto...
... Um exemplo é o caso da mudança do sistema morfológico de Casos do inglês medieval que resulto... more ... Um exemplo é o caso da mudança do sistema morfológico de Casos do inglês medieval que resultou na ... propriedades morfológicas são visíveis. ... Os princípios sintáticos pertencem ao nível universal, as possibilidades da realização deles levam aos Page 6. 6 ...
This paper focuses on the status of de in Romance indefinites, partitives and pseudopartitives. I... more This paper focuses on the status of de in Romance indefinites, partitives and pseudopartitives. It argues that there is neither a 'partitive article' nor a 'partitive preposition' in syntax. De in Romance indefinites is the overt Spell-Out of an abstract operator DE that cancels the definiteness of articles and is responsible for indefiniteness. De in Romance partitives is the overt Spell-Out of a RELATOR head that takes a definite DP as complement and a QP in the specifier position. Finally, pseudopartitivity is shown to have crosslinguistic parallels with indefinites, and it is derived by postulating a mono-projectional analysis in which a semilexical N selects for a DE-phrase, in exactly the same way that quantifiers and cardinals select for indefinite DE-phrases.
Animacy features have been known to trigger syntactic phenomena. In this paper,<br> I focus... more Animacy features have been known to trigger syntactic phenomena. In this paper,<br> I focus on differential object marking (DOM), and the null object in Brazilian<br> Portuguese, where such features are relevant. I assume that animacy corresponds to<br> a specification of Person features, and lack of animacy implies that no Person<br> features are encoded in a DP. Furthermore, I propose that animacy is encoded in a<br> dedicated functional head. Animate DPs (i.e. DOM in Spanish and animate objects<br> in BP) move to Spec, FPanimacy , a projection above V, below v, to check a person<br> feature. Crucially, inanimate DPs stay in situ. They are not DOM marked in Spanish<br> and, by virtue of being low, they can be licensed as DP ellipsis in BP. This<br> analysis may contribute to work seeking to grasp the role of referential hierarchies in<br> syntax.
Spanish, European Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese allow two possible linear orders for the d... more Spanish, European Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese allow two possible linear orders for the direct object (DO) and indirect object (IO) in ditransitives: DO>IO and IO>DO. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we show that the arguments supporting a Double Object Construction (DOC) in these languages are inconclusive on both semantic and structural grounds. Accordingly, we claim that there is no DOC in these three languages. Second, we provide evidence that DO>IO and IO>DO are derivationally related. We show that DO>IO is the base order and that IO>DO is the result of an information structure operation, the latter order being possible only when IO conveys given information in the discourse and occupies the specifier of a low-periphery TopP. We offer a unified analysis that contributes to a comparative understanding of ditransitives in Romance.
Contribuições à descrição e ao ensino do Português Brasileiro: da fonética ao discurso, com parada obrigatória na sintaxe – uma homenagem a Maria Eugênia Lammoglia Duarte, 2021
The null object/overt pronoun split in Brazilian Portuguese has been assimilated to differential ... more The null object/overt pronoun split in Brazilian Portuguese has been assimilated to differential object marking in some functionalist accounts (Schwenter and Silva 2002, Schwenter 2006). This paper examines further arguments for this connection; we evaluate a battery of more formal diagnostics under which the Brazilian Portuguese data pattern similarly to canonical instances of prepositional marking across Romance (Romanian, Spanish etc.). The application of other tests weakens the assumption of a unique licensing position for differentially marked objects in Romance languages.
This book offers a comprehensive account of dative structures across languages –with an important... more This book offers a comprehensive account of dative structures across languages –with an important, though not exclusive, focus on the Romance family. As is well-known, datives play a central role in a variety of structures, ranging from ditransitive constructions to cliticization of indirect objects and differentially marked direct objects, and including also psychological predicates, possessor or causative constructions, among many others. As interest in all these topics has increased significantly over the past three decades, this volume provides an overdue update on the state of the art. Accordingly, the chapters in this volume account for both widely discussed patterns of dative constructions as well as those that are relatively unknown.
Tem sido proposto na literatura que o “problema logico da aquisicao da linguagem” para o aprendiz... more Tem sido proposto na literatura que o “problema logico da aquisicao da linguagem” para o aprendiz de L2 e o mesmo que o aprendiz de L1 enfrenta (White 1982, 1995).Este trabalho e uma analise do problema. Primeiramente, mostro as varias posicoes na literatura sobre a aquisicao de L2. Em seguida, descrevo os resultados de uma pesquisa em andamento (Cyrino, 1996) cujo objetivo e investigar a acessibilidade da Gramatica Universal para aprendiz de L2.
In this paper we present an original approach to analyze the compositionality of indefinite expre... more In this paper we present an original approach to analyze the compositionality of indefinite expressions in Romance by investigating the relevance of their syntactic distribution in relation to their meaning. This approach has the advantage of allowing us to explore the question of how syntactic structure can determine the meaning of different forms of indefiniteness. To that end, we postulate a common derivation for bare plurals, bare mass and de phrases, whereby an abstract operator de is adjoined to definite determiners and shifts entities into property-type expressions. Quantificational specificity is proposed to be derived from a syntactic structure in which weak quantifiers select for indefinite de-phrases, no matter whether de is overt at Spell-Out or not; these quantifiers turn properties into generalized quantifiers. The anti-specificity meaning of some indefinites is derived by adjoining in the syntactic structure an abstract operator alg that encodes the speaker’s epistemi...
Brazilian Portuguese and the Null Subject Parameter, 2000
... KATO, Mary A. (1993) The Distribution of Null and Pronominal objects in Brazilian Portuguese.... more ... KATO, Mary A. (1993) The Distribution of Null and Pronominal objects in Brazilian Portuguese. ... Romance Languages: Selected Papers from the XXI Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series), 225-35, Amsterdam: John Benjamins ...
Data from English show that VP ellipsis only occurs when, in Syntax, a verbal element is in a fun... more Data from English show that VP ellipsis only occurs when, in Syntax, a verbal element is in a functional head that locally c-comands the ellipsis. However, if we accept this analysis, we cannot explain languages in which T and C have uninterpretable features that force the verb to move beforeSpell Out but do not allow VP ellipsis, as in Spanish, French and German. In this paper we defend that whatever determines parametric variation in VP ellipsis is related to whether or not the verbal element that occupies the licensing functional head locally c-commands the immediate projection that is interpretedas the sentence verbal predicate. If there is an intervening projection between the licensing node and the projection interpreted as the sentence verbal predicate, VP ellipsis is not possible. We will rely on parametric differences involving AspP, showing that languages will vary in allowing Asp to be an extension of vP, and hence permitting or not VP ellipsis.
Current understanding of syntactic variation and change relies on the notion of parameters of var... more Current understanding of syntactic variation and change relies on the notion of parameters of varying magnitude (micro- and macroparameters). This chapter focuses on the flipside of parameter change, namely the retention and survival of synthetic morphological structure in a context of widespread analyticization. The global effects of synthetic-to-analytic drift are examined in two diachronic scenarios: one in which the process has almost, though not entirely been completed (Coptic Egyptian), and another one in which the process is still under way (Brazilian Portuguese). Coptic has gone very far in abandoning its former synthetic features and thus exhibits a high degree of analyticity. In Brazilian Portuguese, the analyticization process is an advanced state, with synthetically inflected tenses exhibiting a decreasing productivity and gradually being replaced by the corresponding auxiliary verb constructions in the spoken language. The restriction on verb movement is a side effect o...
I analyze clitic climbing as the effect of Romance syntactic complex predicate formation: the non... more I analyze clitic climbing as the effect of Romance syntactic complex predicate formation: the non-finite verb phrase moves to the specifier of the upper V. This movement forms a complex predicate so as to allow for a configuration where clitics can climb. Crucial for this movement is the presence of a defective C-T. The lack of clitic climbing in Brazilian Portuguese is but one consequence of a non-defective C-T system in these structures. As a consequence, we have the possibility for certain constructions to occur in the language; in fact, they are presented as additional evidence for the proposal.KEYWORDS: Clitic climbing. Syntactic complex predicates. ECM. Inflected infinitives. Brazilian Portuguese. Principles & Parameters Theory.
Sabe-se que o português brasileiro (PB) permite objetos nulos cujos antecedentes são inanimados. ... more Sabe-se que o português brasileiro (PB) permite objetos nulos cujos antecedentes são inanimados. Porém, há certas sentenças que parecem desafiar essa generalização. Essas sentenças também permitem pronomes plenos na posição do objeto. Neste trabalho, defendo que a lacuna nessas sentenças não é o objeto nulo característico do PB, ou seja, não há aí uma elipse de DP. A questão, portanto, é como diferenciá-las (i) daquelas contendo o verdadeiro objeto nulo; e (ii) daquelas que só permitem o pronome pleno. Para discutir essas questões, o trabalho tem como base o arcabouço teórico gerativista e parte de recentes propostas para diferentes tipos de tópico, dentro de uma visão cartográfica (FRASCARELLI; HINTERHÖLZ, 2007). Comparando os objetos nulos do PB com o hebraico (ERTESCHIK-SHIR et al., 2013), assumo que diferentes tipos de tópico devem ser distinguidos em termos de seu papel no discurso. O PB, no entanto, não se assemelha ao hebraico em relação ao fenômeno de queda do tópico. Essa d...
Inflectional languages, and Romance languages in particular, display morphological variation in p... more Inflectional languages, and Romance languages in particular, display morphological variation in plural marking within the nominal domain. While standard varieties show plural inflection on all the constituents within the DP, other varieties show this plural marking only on some of its constituents. We investigate a set of puzzling data and propose that Number in Romance is not a head, but an adjunct, an optional and bi-valent morphosyntactic feature. We single out the hypothesis that, within the nominal domain, the PLURALIZER is in unmarked cases adjoined to D (i.e., a categorized d root), and in marked cases it is adjoined to a noun or an adjective (i.e., a categorized n/a root). We also discuss that instantiations of plural marking within the nominal domain should be conceived as the output of morphophonological concord, a post-syntactic operation that is sensitive to c-command.
Uma observação recorrente no estudo da realização do objeto direto em algumas línguas românicas r... more Uma observação recorrente no estudo da realização do objeto direto em algumas línguas românicas reside no fato de que traços de animacidade parecem determinar a forma que o objeto toma. Neste trabalho, investigo fenômenos que envolvem o traço animacidade e que foram observados separadamente na literatura sobre as línguas românicas: Marcação Diferencial do Objeto, leísmo e a Restrição Caso-Pessoa. O objetivo foi analisar esses fenômenos em comparação com o objeto nulo do português brasileiro, com a finalidade de determinar o papel que a animacidade tem na sintaxe. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstram que, de fato, a animacidade é relevante para a sintaxe. A partir desses resultados, avanço uma proposta que pretende dar conta dos fenômenos investigados e dá suporte a uma abordagem formal para as hierarquias de referencialidade encontradas na literatura não-formalista.
Como é sabido, o espanhol é uma língua românica que requer que certos objetos diretos (OD) sejam ... more Como é sabido, o espanhol é uma língua românica que requer que certos objetos diretos (OD) sejam morfologicamente marcados por a, a chamada Marcação Diferencial do Objeto (DOM). Em outras línguas românicas, tais como o português europeu e brasileiro, por outro lado, objetos diretos animados não são geralmente marcados. Contudo, vários estudos diacrônicos mostram que a marcação morfológica por a do objeto direto era possível nos séculos XVI a XVIII em português, e houve um declínio nesse uso a partir dessa época. Interessantemente, no português brasileiro a marcação do objeto direto por a é ainda possível (ou opcional) em alguns contextos restritos. Neste trabalho, observo o espanhol e o português brasileiro para mostrar que essas línguas são diferentes com relação à marcação por a do objeto direto, mas semelhantes com relação ao fato de que objetos diretos animados são computados externamente ao vP. O trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão dos efeitos da animacidade do objeto...
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