The paper discusses the restricted distribution and interpretation of “referential” null subjects in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). It shows that referential null subjects in BP behave like obligatorily controlled PRO and argues, following Hornstein (1999, 2001), that they should be analyzed as traces (deleted copies) of A-movement. The proposal is that with the weakening of the verbal inflection in BP, finite Ts became ambiguous in bearing a complete or an incomplete set of φ-features. When the incomplete version is selected in an embedded clause, T is not able to value the Case of the DP in its Spec, which then remains active and may undergo further A-movement. If the movement lands in a θ-position, we obtain a finite control construction; if the landing site is not a θ-position, we obtain a hyper-raising construction, instead.
2020. Mandative verbs and deontic modals in Russian: Between obligatory control and overt embedded subjects. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1
2016. The Null Subject Parameter and the Structure of the Sentence in European and Brazilian Portuguese. In The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics, ► pp. 234 ff.
Fong, Suzana
2019. Proper movement through Spec-CP: An argument from hyperraising in Mongolian. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
Galves, Charlotte & Anthony Kroch
2016. Main Syntactic Changes from a Principle‐and‐Parameters View. In The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics, ► pp. 487 ff.
Keine, Stefan
2018. Case vs. positions in the locality of A-movement. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1
2021. On the locus and licensing of edge features. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 6:1
Zyman, Erik
2023. Raising out of Finite Clauses (Hyperraising). Annual Review of Linguistics 9:1 ► pp. 29 ff.
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