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Brazilian Portuguese, Syntax and Semantics: 20 years of Núcleo de Estudos Gramaticais
Edited by Roberta Pires De Oliveira, Ina Emmel and Sandra Quarezemin
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 260] 2020
► pp. 167–190

Chapter 7
Diagnosing verb raising

The view from cartography

| Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Adverbs have been largely taken as diagnostics for movements. The enrichment of structures by the “Cartographic Program” brings about an important question to the theory of verb raising: which AdvPs should be considered reliable diagnostics? The paper brings data from Brazilian Portuguese and Peruvian Spanish to argue that low adverbs are bona fide diagnostics for verb raising. The position of the finite and the infinitive relative to the nine lowest adverbs of Cinque’s hierarchy in four possible orders is tested in these two languages. Data from BP, testing the position of high adverbs relative to the lexical verb, is presented in the sequence. Those data allow one to argue that high adverbs cannot be used as diagnostic tools for movements. Further data on VP-ellipsis confirms the contention that only low adverbs are bona fide diagnostics for V raising.

Keywords: generative syntax, cartography, verb raising, adverbs, the Cinque Hierarchy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Cross-linguistic differences on V-to-I and the split-IP
  • 3.Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy of adverbs
  • 4.A pinch of methodology
  • 5.Verb raising across low AdvPs in BP and PS: The finite and infinitive forms
  • 6.High adverbs
  • 7.Conclusions and further issues
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.260.07tes
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