Part of
Minimalist Essays on Brazilian Portuguese SyntaxEdited by Jairo Nunes
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 142] 2009
► pp. 17–49
Edited by Jairo Nunes
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 142] 2009
► pp. 17–49
Chapter 2. Null subjects and finite control in Brazilian Portuguese
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.
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2020. Mandative verbs and deontic modals in Russian: Between obligatory control and overt embedded subjects. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1 
Castro, Tammer, Jason Rothman & Marit Westergaard
2016. Comparing anaphora resolution in early and late Brazilian Portuguese-European Portuguese bidialectal bilinguals. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 29:2 ► pp. 429 ff.
Duarte, Inês & Maria Cristina Figueiredo Silva
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
Khristoforova, Evgeniia
2023. Subject agreement in control and modal constructions in Russian Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 26:1 ► pp. 64 ff.
Major, Travis
2022. Revisiting the Syntax of Monsters in Uyghur. Linguistic Inquiry 53:4 ► pp. 780 ff.
Marchis Moreno, Mihaela
2014. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations. In Variation within and across Romance Languages [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 333], ► pp. 213 ff.
Martins, Ana Maria & Jairo Nunes
2021. Chapter 9. Brazilian and European Portuguese and Holmberg’s 2005 typology of null subject languages. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2018 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 357], ► pp. 172 ff.
Menuzzi, Sergio & Maria Lobo
2016. Binding and Pronominal Forms in Portuguese. In The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics, ► pp. 338 ff.
Nunes, Jairo
2014. Adjunct Control and edge features. In Minimalism and Beyond [Language Faculty and Beyond, 11], ► pp. 79 ff.
Nunes, Jairo
2017. Chapter 11. Circumventing ɸ-minimality. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 12 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 12], ► pp. 159 ff.
Nunes, Jairo
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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