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Complement Clauses in Portuguese: Syntax and acquisition
Edited by Ana Lúcia Santos and Anabela Gonçalves
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 17] 2018
► pp. 59–100

Inflected infinitives in Brazilian Portuguese and the theory of Control

| University of São Paulo

In this chapter, we describe the distribution of inflected infinitives in Brazilian Portuguese (BP); discuss the possible interpretations of their subjects when null and address the debate between Modesto (2010) and proponents of the movement theory of Control (MTC, particularly Boeckx & Hornstein, 2006; Rodrigues & Hornstein, 2013) as to whether inflected infinitives constitute a serious argument against the MTC. Data were experimentally tested using a grammaticality judgment task, presented here. Results indicate that inflected infinitives are perfectly grammatical in obligatory Control contexts for BP speakers; but its grammaticality is uncertain in non-control contexts, supporting Modesto’s claims.

Keywords: minimalism, inflected infinitives, Brazilian Portuguese, Movement theory of Control, Two-tiered Theory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.BP inflection and pro-drop
  • 3. Rodrigues and Hornstein (2013)
    • 3.1The experiment
    • 3.2Partial Control structures
      • 3.2.1The complex DP analysis
      • 3.2.2Inflected infinitives are controlled, null finite subjects are not
    • 3.3BP has nonfinite inflected clauses
    • 3.4Epicene agreement and null finite subjects in Brazilian Portuguese
  • 4.The distribution of inflected infinitives in BP
  • 5.Making sense of the data
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.17.03mod
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