Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton July 21, 2018

Nominal ellipsis and prepositional modifiers in Portuguese: a phase-theoretic approach

  • Eduardo P. Raposo EMAIL logo
From the journal Probus

Abstract

Definite determiners in Portuguese are (pro)clitics. As such, they must attach to a full prosodic word at PF. This is achieved by an operation which “fuses” the determiner to the following lexical item. In anaphoric DPs with an elliptical noun modified by a prepositional phrase, fusion to a full preposition (P*) is not possible. This is accounted for by claiming that P*Ps are phases that are sent to Spell-Out as soon as they are formed (“early Spell-Out”); thus, they will not be accessible to fusion with the definite article at the phonological cycle of the higher phase and the derivation crashes because the definite article is not included in a prosodic word. PPs with the dummy preposition de ‘of’ can modify elliptical nouns since dummy de is arguably a morphological reflex of inherent Case assigned by the (elliptical) noun; thus, it does not constitute a phase together with its NP complement. The analysis is then extended to cases where the modifier of the elliptical noun is a clause.

References

Barbosa, Pilar. 1996. Clitic Placement in European Portuguese and the Position of Subjects. In Aaron Halpern & Arnold Zwicky (eds.), Approaching Second: Second Position Clitics and Related Phenomena, 1–40. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Barbosa, Pilar. 2013. Subordinação Argumental Finita. In B. P. Eduardo, Maria Raposo, B. Fernanda, Maria Do Nascimento, Antónia C Da Mota, Maria Luisa Segura & Amália Mendes (eds.), Gramática do Português (2° Vol.), 1819–1897. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.Search in Google Scholar

Bianchi, Valentina. 2000. The Raising Analysis of Relative Clauses: A Reply to Borsley. Linguistic Inquiry 31(1). 123–140.10.1162/002438900554316Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1986. Barriers. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1995a. Bare Phrase Structure. In Hector Campos & Paula Kempchinsky (eds.), Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory: Studies in Honor of Carlos P. Otero, 51–109. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1995b. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262527347.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 2000. Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework. In Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds.), Step by Step: Essays in Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, 89–155. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by Phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A Life in Language, 1–52. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam & Howard Lasnik. 1993. The Theory of Principles and Parameters. In Joachim Jacobs, Arnim Von Stechov, Wolfgang Sternefeld & Theo Vennemann (eds.), Syntax: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110095869.1.9.506Search in Google Scholar

Grimshaw, Jane. 1990. Argument Structure. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Guimarães, Max. 1998. Repensando a Interface Sintaxe-Fonologia a partir do Axioma de Correspondência Linear. M.A. Dissertation. Campinas: Unicamp.Search in Google Scholar

Halle, Morris & Alex Marantz. 1993. Distributed Morphology and the Pieces of Inflection. In Kenneth Hale & Samuel J Keyser (eds.), The View From Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger, 111–176. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hernanz, Ma. Lluisa & José Ma. Brucart. 1987. La Sintaxis: 1. Principios Teóricos. La Oración Simple. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica.Search in Google Scholar

Hornstein, Norbert & David Lightfoot. 1981. Introduction. In Norbert Hornstein & David Lightfoot (eds.), Explanation in Linguistics: The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition, 9–31. London and New York: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Kayne, Richard S. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Llombart, Amàlia. 2002. Anaphoric One and NP-Ellipsis. Studia Linguistica 56(1). 59–89.10.1111/1467-9582.00087Search in Google Scholar

Llombart, Amàlia. 2003. Nominal Anaphora in Spanish and English. PhD Dissertation. Santa Barbara: UCSBSearch in Google Scholar

Martins, Ana Maria. 2013. Posição dos Pronomes Pessoais Clíticos. In B. P. Eduardo, Maria Raposo, B. Fernanda, Maria Do Nascimento, Antónia C. Da Mota, Maria Luisa Segura & Amália Mendes (eds.), Gramática do Português (2° Vol.), 2231–2302. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.Search in Google Scholar

Otero, Carlos. 1996. Head movement, Cliticization, Precompilation and Word Insertion (Comments on Uriagereka’s Paper). In Robert Freidin (ed.), Current Issues in Comparative Grammar, 296–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-009-0135-3_14Search in Google Scholar

Postal, Paul. 1969. On So-called “Pronouns” in English. In David. A Reibel & Sanford A Schane (eds.), Modern Studies in English: Readingsin Transformational Grammar, 201–224. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Search in Google Scholar

Pullum, Geoffrey K & Rodney Huddleston. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316423530Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 1973. Sobre a Forma o em Português. Boletim de Filologia XXII. 361–415.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 1987a. Case Theory and Infl-to-Comp: The Inflected Infinitive in European Portuguese. Linguistic Inquiry 18(1). 85–109.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 1987b. Romance Infinitival Clauses and Case Theory. In Carol Neidle & Rafael Nuñez-Cedeño (eds.), Studies in Romance Languages, 237–249. Dordrecht: Foris.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 1998. Some Observations on the Pronominal System of Portuguese. Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics Vol.6. 59–93.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 2002. Nominal Gaps with Prepositional Modifiers in Spanish and Portuguese. Cuadernos de Linguística IX, Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset. 127–144.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo. 2010. Clitic Placement in Romance: A Phase-Theoretic Approach. In Donna B Gerdts, John C Moore & Maria Polinsky (eds.), Hypothesis A/Hypothesis B: Linguistic Explorations in Honor Of David M. Perlmutter, 401–425. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo & Juan Uriagereka. 2005. Clitic Placement in Western Iberian: A Minimalist View. In Guglielmo Cinque & Richard Kayne (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax, 639–697. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Raposo, Eduardo & Maria Francisca Xavier. 2013. Preposição e Sintagma Preposicional. In B. P. Eduardo, Maria Raposo, B. Fernanda, Maria Do Nascimento, Antónia C Da Mota, Maria Luisa Segura & Amália Mendes (eds.), Gramática do Português (2° Vol.), 1497–1556. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.Search in Google Scholar

Uriagereka, Juan. 1999. Multiple Spell-Out. In Samuel Epstein & Norbert Hornstein (eds.), Working Minimalism, 251–282. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Vigário, Marina. 2003. The Prosodic Word in European Portuguese. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110900927Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-07-21
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/probus-2018-0004/html
Scroll to top button