Null Objects and VP Ellipsis in European and Brazilian Portuguese
Year: 2016
Type: other
Abstract: Null Object (Null-Obj) and VP ellipsis (VPE) share the property of involving the omission of the complement selected by the verb. In Portuguese, both constructions coexist, some sentences being ambiguous between the two constructions. This chapter analyzes the properties of Null-Obj and VPE in European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Portuguese allows different types of Null-Obj. The chapter focuses on definite anaphoric and situational null objects. Within the Principles and Parameters framework, VPE analyses mainly focused on the licensing condition(s) on the elliptical constituent and the recovering strategy of ellipsis. The chapter retains these topics in the study of VPE in EP and BP. The main differences between EP and BP concern VPE with verbal sequences. In EP certain verbal sequences easily allow a VPE interpretation, but others do not favor this reading. In opposition, the VPE interpretation is always clearly preferred in BP.
Authors: Sonia Cyrino, Gabriela Matos
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2490962204