([email protected]) / ([email protected])

Semantic reflexes in the
third person syntax
Fernanda Cerqueira (PPGLinC / FAPESB) / Danniel Carvalho (UFBA)
*Eu quero pegar ele e
ela pra conversar. [Referentes: todo/qualquer menino e
He assaulted she also? [Referent: Maria]
toda/qualquer menina]
I
INTRODUCTION:
feature geometry (see HARLEY; RITTER, 2002; COWPER; HALL, 2002; BÉJAR, 2003;
Was hei that I bought eci [Referent: the/that shoe]
Aí
7. Eles tocar am a
I loved him [Possible referent: João/the new Peugeot]
por ta.
Agarre ele ainda mais. [Referentes possíveis: o cara/o edredom]
Grab he stil more [Possible referent: The guy/the duvet]
Na Espanha, eles falam espanhol.
“You grab him/it even more”
“In Spain, (they) speak.3pl Spanish.”
maticalized in a wide diachronic process. Thus, it is hoped with this work to present a way to
Tranquilo, deixarei
ec Chove.
trace the composition of it in accusative position in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) from the per-
Nice
“(it) rains.3sg”
spective of a feature theory (see HARLEY; RITTER, 2002; COWPER; HALL, 2002; BÉJAR,
“He bought a new car”
([email protected]) / ([email protected])
(HOFFHER, 2003, p. 83-86)
ANIMACY:
The objective of the study is to verify the relevance of the features [Definite], [specific]
and [Animate], besides questioning the conditions of underspecification of the third person
and its closeness to determinants.
THEORETICAL:
This work will adopt the theoretical framework of the Generative Grammar Theory, in
conformity with the Minimalist Program, as proposed by Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001). In carrying out the embedding tests with third-person pronoun, the used data will be extracted from
the social network Facebook, as a representation of spontaneous data language. In addition,
grammaticality tests are also performed, duly attested by native speakers of BP, as the theoretical assumptions of the Generative Theory (see Chomsky 1965, 1981, 1986, 1995, 2000,
2001), considering that the native speaker of any human language is competent in his/her linguistic form, being able to perform grammaticality judgments.
Cyrino (1994), in her diachronic study of the null object in Portuguese, argues that an
important aspect to the emergence and competition among null variant (null object / DP
ellipse) and the full variant (third person nominate in the accusative position) against
the accusative clitic (o/a) in BP is animacy. Thus, it is observed that the presence of the
feature [animacy] in DP referenced by the pronominal element has been considered an
important aspect of the choice of pronominalization strategy in BP (see DUARTE,
1986; BIANCHI; FIGUEIREDO SILVA, 1994; CYRINO 2003, 1997; KATO, 1993).
So, with the loss of the clitic, the full pronoun would be licensed by the dialing of animacy while the null object would be licensed by the absence of it.
8. topicalization
Elei, João não viu eci agora. [Referente: o menino]
Hei João NEG see eci now. [Referent: the boy]
“Him, João didn’t see now”
9. c-modifier
is the referent in question, i.e., for the DP to be definite it is necessary that the value of its ref-
Estou procurando só
erent is an entity and/or a species whose concept is shared by speaker and hearer. Since Speci-
Am
ficity is treated here as the property of a DP to reference distinctive and essential elements (see
“I am looking only for her”
COWPER; HALL, 2002), while referenciality is taken here as the property of a pronominal
Estou procurando só
element to recover the φ-features of its previous antecedent/referent (see HARLEY , RITTER,
Am
2002).
“I am looking only for it”
Put he in.the axis [Possible referent: the fan/the boy]
“Put him/it back on trak”
ele. [Referente: aquele gato]
Nem sempre poderei apagar ele.
Nor always can.FUT1sg delete he
[Referentes: o garoto autista/o histórico da conversa]
Referent: the autist boy/the conversation history]
“I won’t always be able to delete him/it”
only he [Referent: that cat]
Estou procurando só
searching
mensagem, respondo ela mentalmente, mas esqueço
read.PRES the message
ela. [Referente: a farinha]
only she [Referent: the flour]
answer
she mentally
- Quem você beijou?
de
but forget.PRES of
responder ela de verdade. [Referente: a mensagem]
she of truth
c. Como é
[Referent: the message]
um direito que tenho,
How be.PRES.3sg a
right
We could identify that the third person pronoun ele in the accusative position shall have
- Ele. [Referente: o cara]
the features [Definite] and [Specific]. It is clear that these features are crucial for the
- Who you kiss.PAST? - He [Referent: the guy]
distribution of third person pronouns, characterizing them as formal features, i.e. primi-
“- Who did you kiss? - Him”
– Quem/o que você viu?
tive constituents.
- Ele. [Referente: o bichinho]
It was noted that the feature [A nimate] may be present in the notation of ele in accusa-
- Who/what you see.PAST? - He [Referent: the pet]
“I usually read the message and answer it mentally but I forget to actually answer it.”
prefiro exercer ele.
that have.PRES.1sg prefer exercise he
[Referente: um direito]
tive position, in certain contexts, however, it does not have the same relevance as the
“- What did you see? - It”
- O que você viu?
features [Definite] and [Specific]. Therefore, animacy is a feature that has relevance to
- Ele. [Referente: o carro roubado]
the description of ele in accusative position, but not for its distribution. As a result, this
- What you see.PAST? - He [Referent: the stolen dog]
feature, although present in the pronoun’s geometry, is read only in LF (Logic Form), as
“- What did you see? - It”
this feature does not interfere in its syntactic behavior, nor in its phonological label.
Therefore, the formal features valued in the computation to license ele in accusative po-
11. coordenation
[Referent: a right]
Eu quero pegar ele e
“As it is a right I have, I prefer to exercise it”
I
ela pra conversar. [Referentes: João e Maria]
want to.take he and she to talk
[Referent: João and Maria]
dog
here kill
him [Referent: any dog]
Based on embedding tests of the phenomenon in different contexts, it was concluded
notation so it is licensed in the accusative position; ii) different from what Cyrino’s
d. Se eu ver algum cachorro aqui, mato ele. [Referente: algum cachorro]
see any
sition are [Definite] and [Specific].
that: i) the third person pronoun shall have the features [Definite] and [Specific] in its
“I want to get him and her to talk”
If I
baptize she [Possible referent: Maria/the vodka]
Coloca ele no eixo. [Referentes possíveis: o ventilador/ o menino]
only she [Referent: Maria]
searching
ela. [Referentes possíveis: Maria/a vodka]
“I spiked it”
ela. [Referente: Maria]
10. isolation
“Why don’t you hit in the face of the man who cheated on her?”
answer
searching
ele. [Referentes possíveis: o celular/o cara]
CONCLUSIONS:
[Referent: the woman]
I
[Referent: the consultation]
“I am looking only for it”
[Referente: a mulher]
a
check she there for me
Eu batizo
I
that the presence of the feature [Definite] requires that speaker and hearer know "who / what”
b. Eu leio
Please
pra mim. [Referente: a consulta]
“I broke him”
João NEG see eci now. [Referent: the Spanish book]
Am
Por favor, marca ela aí
Break.PAST.1sg him [Possible referent: the mobile phone/the guy]
namely article, whose main function is to assign reading set to NP. Mariano (2012) assumes
NEG give.PRES on.the face of.the male that horn.PAST she
I NEG have them.masc in.the Facebook [Referent: the boys/the apps]
Quebrei
Hei
Why
Eu não tenho eles no face. [Referente: os meninos/os aplicativos]
16. Ambiguity solved by the parallel context to world’s knowledge
tion for definiteness in which, in many languages, the nominal constituent has an element,
ela?
“I don’t have them”
“Please, check her in this Facebook post for me”
Elei, João não viu eci agora. [Referente: o livro de espanhol]
macho que chifrou
I NEG have them.masc [Referent: shoes]
Please, check she there for me in.this post [Referent: Maria]
Hei João NEG see eci now. [Referent: the dog]
cara do
Eu não tenho eles. [Referente: os sapatos]
Por favor, marca ela aí pra mim neste post. [Referente: Maria]
tion is binary, that is, it is either definite or not. Lyons (1999), in turn, presents a characteriza-
na
Imagine quando ela conhecer ele. [Referentes possíveis: João/o sítio]
Imagine when she know
he [Possible referent: João/the ranch]
“Please, book it for me”
For Chesterman (1991), definiteness is a semantic definition, the concept and its recogni-
1. a. Por quê não dá
let.FUT1sg she here [Possible referent: the bitch/the TV]
15. Ambiguity solved by the sentential context expansion
Elei, João não viu eci agora. [Referente: o cachorro]
DEFINITENESS AND SPECIFICITY:
ela aqui. [Referentes possíveis: a cadela/a televisão]
“Nice, I’ll let it here”
Ele comprou um car ro novo.
2003; CARVALHO, 2008).
“Then you spite him too”
Eu amei ele. [Referentes possíveis: João/ o novo Peugeot]
“(They) knock.3pl at the door.” (=someone is knocking...)
[Definite], [Specific] [Location] [Distal], [Animate], among others, which would have gram-
he also [Referent: her husband]
14. Ambiguity solved by the context reconstruction
“It was that one I bought”
they are available in its inventory.
OBJECTIVE:
você pirraça ele também. [Referente: o marido dela]
There you spite
Was hei that I bought eci [Referent: all/any shoe]
(2008) that personal pronouns have in their inventory semantic-pragmatic features, namely
a funcionar.
“I opened it and cleaned it and then it started working again”
derspecification, a condition in which a particular item does not have all its features, although
first and second person, I assume with Cowper and Hall (2002), Schulte (2003) and Carvalho
voltou
Foi elei que eu comprei eci. [Referente: o/aquele sapato]
*Foi elei que eu comprei eci. [Referente: todo/qualquer sapato]
tivated depending on the element configuration. This approach provides the condition of un-
limpei,
[Referent: the mobile phone]
“It was that one I bought”
features dominated by the categories of person, gender and number, these may come to be ac-
ele e
[Referente: o celular]
6. clefting
non in accusative position, since the pronominal item may not have in its inventory a range of
Abri
Open.PAST1sg he and clean.PAST1sg return.PAST3sg to work
“I want to get him and her to talk”
CARVALHO, 2008) proved to be adequate to the understanding of the third person phenome-
While there is in the third person a degree of underspecification higher than in the pronouns of
[Referent: all/any boy and all/
any girl]
From the perspective in which the pronominal (de)composition of atomic elements differs
from the traditional perspective of φ-features as a crystallized set of features, the proposed
want to.take he and she to talk
“Did he assault her too?”
Eu levarei
“If I see any dog here, I’ll kill it”
ele e
I
ela pra doação. [Referentes: este cachorro e esta gata]
will.take he and she to donate [Referent: this dog and this cat]
(1994) work points out, animacy does not appear to be relevant to the distribution of ele
in the accusative position due to the fact that it does not interfere in the realization of
the phenomenon, being read, in turn, only in LF.
2. topicalization
Elei, João não viu
Eu quero comprar ele e
eci hoje. [Referente: o/este menino]
I
want to.buy
ela pra mim. [Referentes: este quadro e aquela poltrona]
he and she for me
[Referent: this picture and that chair
REFERENCES:
Hei João NEG see.PAST eci today[Referent: the/this boy]
BÉJAR, Suzanne. Phi-syntax: a theory of agreement 2003. PhD Thesis (PhD in Linguistics) – University of Toronto, Ontário.
*Elei, João não viu
BIANCHI, Valentina. ; FIGUEIREDO SILVA, Maria. Cristina. On some properties of agreement-object in italian and brazilian
portuguese. In: MAZZOLA, M. Issues and theory in romance languages X X III. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press,
1994.
eci hoje. [Referente: todo/qualquer menino]
Hei João NEG see.PAST eci today[Referent: all/any boy]
12. clefting
Foi elei que eu encontrei eci ontem. [Referente: João]
CARDINALETTI, Anna.; STARKE, Michal. The typology of structural deficiency: a case of the three classes of pronouns. In:
VAN RIEMSDIJK, H. (Ed.) Clitics in the language of Europe. Berlin: Mouton et Gruyter, 1999, p. 41-109.
Was hei that I found eci yesterday [Referent: João]
3. c-modifier
Estou procurando só
Am
searching
ela. [Referente: Maria]
only she [Referent: Maria]
“I am looking for her”
*Estou procurando só
Am
searching
CARVALHO, Danniel da Silva. A Estrutura interna dos pronomes pessoais em português brasileiro, 2008. PHD Thesis (PhD in
Letters and Linguistics) – Faculdade de Letras, UFAL, Alagoas.
“It was him that I found yesterday’
ela. [Referente: toda/qualquer moça]
only she [Referent: all/any girl]
Foi elei que eu ganhei eci da
Was hei that I won
vovó.
[Referente: esse passarinho]
eci of.the grandmother [Referent: this bird]
Foi elei que eu comprei eci. [Referente: aquele sapato]
Was hei that I bought eci [Referent: that shoe]
“It was it that I bought”
In addition to the tests (12-16), there are other conditions (cf. 17-20) in which it appears that the relevance of animacy can be questioned. These situations are divided from the
4. isolation
- Quem você beijou?
- Ele. [Referente: o/esse cara]
Who you kiss.PAST? - He [Referent: the/this guy]
possibility of the sentence present or not an animate and/or inanimate referent, which is
treated here as ambiguity.
“- Who did you kiss? - Him”
- Quem você viu?
*Ela. [Referente: toda/qualquer menina]
Sabe aquele gelo que você me deu?
“- Who did you kiss? - Her”
Know that
Estou tomando ele com vodka.
ice that you me give.PAST? Am
taking
he with vodka
[Referente: aquele gelo]
[Referent: that ice]
5. coordenation
Eu quero pegar ele e
I
ela pra conversar. [Referentes: João e Maria]
want to.take he and she to talk
[Referent: João and Maria]
“You know that cold shoulder you gave me? I’m having it with vodka”
{Give someone a cold shoulder = give someone some cubes of ice}
Ele agrediu ela também? [Referente: Maria]
COWPER, Elizabeth.; HALL, Daniel. Currie. The syntactic manifestation of nominal feature geometry. In: Proceedings of the
2002 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. Montréal: Cahiers Linguistiques de l’UQAM, 2001, p. 55-66.
CYRINO, Sônia. Maria. Lazzarini. O objeto nulo no português do Brasil: um estudo sintático diacrônico. PhD Thesis, UNICAMP, Campinas: 1994.
________. Para a história do português brasileiro: a presença do objeto nulo e a ausência de clíticos. Letras de Hoje, Porto Alegre, 2003, v. 38, n. 1, p. 31-47.
DUARTE, Maria. Eugênia. Lamoglia. Variação e Sintaxe: clítico acusativo, pronome lexical e categoria vazia no português do
Brasil, 1986. Dissertação (Mestrado em Letras e Linguística). São Paulo: Universidade Católica.
HARBOUR, Daniel.; ADGER, David; BÉJAR, Suzane. Phi Theory: Phi-Features across modules and interfaces. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
13. Without ambiguity
- Who you kiss.PAST? - She [Referent: all/any girl]
CHESTERMAN, Andrew. On definiteness: A study with special reference to English and Finnish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
CHOMSKY, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1965.
________. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris, 1981.
________. Barriers: Linguistic Inquiry. 13. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986.
________. Minimalist program. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995.
________. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In MARTIN, Roger.; MICHAELS, David.; URIAGEREKA, Juan. Step by Step:
Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2000, p. 89-155.
________. Derivation by phase. In: KENSTOWICZ, Michael. (ed.) Ken Hale: A life in Language. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press,
2001.
HARLEY, Heidi.; RITTER, Elizabeth. Person and number in pronouns: a feature-geometric analysis. Language, 2002, v. 78. p.
482-526.
HOFFHER, Patrícia. Cabredo. Arbitrary readings of 3pl pronominals. In: WEISBERGER , Matthias. (Ed.) Procedings of the conference, Germany: Universitat Konstanz, 2003.
KATO, Mary. Aizawa. The Distribuicion of pronouns and null elements in objetct position in Brazilian Portuguese. ASHBY, R. et
al. (Org.). Linguistic perspectives on Romance languages: selected papers from the XXI Linguistic Symposium of Romance Languages. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1993.
LYONS, Christopher. Definiteness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
MARIANO, Victor. Cavalcante. A estrutura dos DPs em posição de sujeito no português rural afrodescendente. In: Revista Inventário, 2012, 11ª ed.
SCHULTE, Kim. Pragmatic relevance as cause for syntactic change: The emergence of prepositional complementizers in
Romance. In: BLAKE, Barry; BURRIDGE, Kate. Historical Linguistics. J. Bejamins: Amsterdam, 2003, p. 378 – 394.