Null objects in Brazilian Portuguese

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Null Objects

scholarly journals Null objects/full pronouns and topicality in Brazilian Portuguese

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3482-3498
Author(s):  
Sonia Maria Lazzarini Cyrino
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Null Objects

Sabe-se que o português brasileiro (PB) permite objetos nulos cujos antecedentes são inanimados. Porém, há certas sentenças que parecem desafiar essa generalização. Essas sentenças também permitem pronomes plenos na posição do objeto. Neste trabalho, defendo que a lacuna nessas sentenças não é o objeto nulo característico do PB, ou seja, não há aí uma elipse de DP. A questão, portanto, é como diferenciá-las (i) daquelas contendo o verdadeiro objeto nulo; e (ii) daquelas que só permitem o pronome pleno. Para discutir essas questões, o trabalho tem como base o arcabouço teórico gerativista e parte de recentes propostas para diferentes tipos de tópico, dentro de uma visão cartográfica (FRASCARELLI; HINTERHÖLZ, 2007). Comparando os objetos nulos do PB com o hebraico (ERTESCHIK-SHIR et al., 2013), assumo que diferentes tipos de tópico devem ser distinguidos em termos de seu papel no discurso. O PB, no entanto, não se assemelha ao hebraico em relação ao fenômeno de queda do tópico. Essa discussão embasa a proposta aqui apresentada acerca da distribuição do objeto nulo e pronome pleno no PB. Os objetos nulos animados vs. não-animados do PB são permitidos de acordo com o tipo de tópico presente na periferia à esquerda. O trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão sobre a alternância objeto nulo/pronome pleno no PB.

Clitics and object expression in the L3 acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese: Structural similarity matters for transfer

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul ◽  
Rejanes Dias ◽  
Hélade Santos
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
L1 And L2

This article addresses the role of previously acquired languages in the acquisition of a third language (L3) in two experimental studies on object expression in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Participants were English-speaking learners of BP as L3 with knowledge of Spanish as a second language (L2) and Spanish-speaking learners of BP with knowledge of English as L2. Like Spanish, BP has object clitic pronouns, but there are important differences between the two languages with respect to the rates of clitics used in spoken and written registers, null objects and the position of clitics with respect to the verb. English, by contrast, lacks object clitics. Study 1 tested use of clitics and other objects in an oral production task. Study 2 tested knowledge of clitic placement in a written acceptability judgment task. The general results of the two studies show that acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese object expression is not very problematic but there are transfer effects from Spanish (as L1 and L2) in the two experimental groups. This result suggests that structural similarity or cross-linguistic correspondences matter in L3 acquisition.

Null objects are ellipsis in Brazilian Portuguese

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Cyrino ◽  
Ruth Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
The One

AbstractBrazilian 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. Although ANOs and V-VPE may have identical surface strings in BP, we propose that they do not have the same structure. We argue that ANOs in BP are cases of DP ellipsis, and they present four properties that have been associated with (VP) ellipsis in the literature: a) availability of strict/sloppy readings (Ross, 1967.

Specificity in Spanish

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Borgonovo ◽  
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito ◽  
Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽  
Philippe Prévost ◽  
Elena Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Interface Phenomena ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Semantic Notion

Recent proposals argue that interface areas such as syntax/semantics and syntax/pragmatics are particularly difficult for adult learners, in comparison to purely syntactic phenomena (Sorace 2003, 2004). In contrast, other research shows that L2 learners are able to acquire target representations even when the interpretation is not readily available in the input (Borgonovo, Bruhn de Garavito and Prévost 2005, Dekydtspotter and Sprouse 2001). In this paper we add to the growing literature on the acquisition of interpretational properties by showing that adult L2 learners can acquire knowledge of the syntactic correlates of the semantic notion of specificity in constructions involving topicalisation and null objects in Spanish. The learners’ first language (L1) is Brazilian Portuguese, where specificity does not play the role in these constructions that it plays in Spanish. Results show that learners can go beyond their L1 with respect to the acquisition of interface phenomena, suggesting that native-like grammars are attainable in L2 acquisition.

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