This paper addresses two important aspects related to the problem of differential object marking in Brazilian Portuguese. On the one hand, it demonstrates that this phenomenon is not completely absent from the language, contrary to traditional assumptions. Among the contexts in which… read more
In this paper, we argue that Spanish (and other Romance languages such as Catalan), contrary to what has been believed up to now, patterns with languages such as Brazilian Portuguese and French. We present several different arguments to support our proposal that in the Romance languages we… read more
Brazilian Portuguese null objects present a cluster of properties that supports a DP ellipsis analysis. The elided DP has its antecedent in a parallel structure and allows strict and sloppy readings. Besides those properties, null objects in this language do not allow their… read more
In this paper we focus on the meaning of definite DPs that allow a weak reading. We review three different proposals for weak definites, and we present a new analysis with special reference to Romance languages. We submit that the eventual weak reading of a definite DP and its contribution to a… read more
Brazilian Portuguese (BP) is known to license anaphoric null objects (ANO), that is, null objects with a linguistic antecedent. It also licenses VP ellipsis (VPE), with auxiliaries, modals and main verbs, the latter a case of V-stranding VPE (V-VPE), the one with which we will be concerned.… read more
This chapter considers the extent to which the faire-par causative (FP) is available in Italian, French, Catalan, and varieties of Spanish and Portuguese. While French and Italian (like some Spanish varieties) permit FP with an optional by-phrase, Catalan permits FP only where the by-phrase is… read more
Brazilian Portuguese (BrP) is different from other Romance languages in allowing bare nominals in argument position. In this paper we focus on the apparent differences between this language and other Romance languages, and on the structure that bare nominals have in this language. We argue… read more
I argue that morphological markings and richness of verbal tense paradigms might not be related to verb movement in the way proposed by Biberauer and Roberts (2010). I show that in Brazilian Portuguese there has been a partial loss of verb movement, although the language kept some synthetic forms.… read more
Middle se constructions have been considered as non-active morphology, showing the same effect as passive se constructions, namely, internal argument promotion. The presence of se indicates that a property is attributed to the “subject” of the sentence, which is the underlying internal argument.… read more
