scholarly journals Null subjects in contemporary Brazilian filmic speech

Gragoatá ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 244-267
Author(s):  
Gian Luigi De Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Brazilian Film

The present research, based on a corpus of contemporary Brazilian filmic speech – Urban Carioca Sub-Corpus from the I-Fala Corpus of Luso-Brazilian Film Dialogues as a resource for L1 & L2 Learning and Linguistic Research (DE ROSA et al., 2017) –, illustrates how Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has undergone a process of change regarding the representation of referential subjects. A preference for overt pronominal subjects is on the rise, thus transitioning contemporary Brazilian Portuguese from a null subject language to a partial null subject language. The current paper revisits De Rosa (2017), this time including third person subjects and using actual film dialogue transcriptions rather than scripts. The occurrence of null and overt subjects in the corpus is discussed both quantitatively and qualitatively. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SUJEITOS NULOS NA FALA FÍLMICA BRASILEIRA CONTEMPORÂNEAO presente contributo, baseado numa amostra de fala fílmica brasileira contemporânea – Urban Carioca Sub-Corpus do I-Fala: Corpus of Luso-Brazilian Film Dialogues as a resource for L1 & L2 Learning and Linguistic Research (DE ROSA et al., 2017) –, propõe-se observar o processo de transformação que está atingindo o português brasileiro (PB) que está perdendo, à luz de toda uma série de mudanças linguísticas, as caraterísticas de uma língua de sujeito nulo. Nesse contributo, revisitamos De Rosa (2017), incluindo os sujeitos de terceira pessoa, sempre com o objetivo de registrar, em termos quantitativos e qualitativos, a presença do sujeito pleno nos diálogos fílmicos analisados e de confrontar os resultados com os dados da fala espontânea.---Original em inglês.

scholarly journals O sujeito na fala fílmica brasileira

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gian Luigi De Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Conservative Nature ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Brazilian Film

The present study, based on a corpus of contemporary Brazilian film dialogues (Sub-Corpus Carioca Urbano, Corpus I-Fala, Luso-Brazilian Film Dialogues as a resource for L1 & L2 Learning and Linguistic Research), illustrates how Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has undergone a process of change in the representation of referential subjects, with preference for overt pronominal subjects, passing from being a null subject language to being a partial null subject language. Thus, the current work revisits De Rosa (2017) by including 3rd person subjects and using film dialogue transcriptions (not scripts) and discusses the presence of null and overt subjects in the corpus, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study also compares the filmic data to spontaneous speech and shows a basically conservative nature of the former.

Multiple constraints and the resolution of Korean null subject anaphor

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sook Whan Cho ◽  
Hyun Jin Hwangbo
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Syntactic Cues ◽  
Discourse Topic ◽  
Better Than

This study investigates how Korean adults interpret and identify the referent of a null subject in a narrative text, given different types of topic continuity and person features. We have found that the first-person feature was most accessible in the weak topicality condition in resolving the null subjects, and that the target sentences ending with the first-person modal suffix ‘-lay’ were read and responded to faster, and interpreted more correctly than other types of stimuli involving a third-person modal (‘-tay’) and a person-neutral modal (‘-e’). Furthermore, of the two first-person-specific featured types, the null subjects in the topically weak contexts were processed significantly better than those in the topically strong conditions. It was argued that anaphoric dependency would be formed more discursively than morpho-syntactically in the strong discourse continuity contexts involving no extra processing load due to the shift among multiple eligible candidates. It was also argued that, in the absence of discourse topic assigned strongly to more than one eligible referent in advance, morpho-syntactic cues involved in verb modality are likely to become prominent in the mind of the processor. It is concluded that these main findings support a constraint-based approach, but not the Centering-inspired work.

scholarly journals Pre-verbal position in BP: a reinterpretation of the "avoid pronoun principle"

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 610-626
Author(s):  
Mary Aizawa Kato ◽  
Eugênia Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Logical Form ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
The Other ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Initial Element ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Present Distribution

The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes occurring in Brazilian Portuguese, regarding the possibility of null subjects, and suggest the kinds of constraints that explain its present distribution. In this paper, we will propose that the null subject parameter is defi ned at the interfaces. At the level of Logical Form, a constraint like Chomsky’s (1981) Avoid Pronoun will be atwork for languages that are prototypical null subject languages, like Spanish and Chinese. For languages like BP, a system with a particular distribution of null subjects, the constraint will be more specifi c: Avoid non-referential pronouns. We will also propose that at the other interface, the Phonetic Form, languages have fi lters regarding their rhythm. To account for the preference for certain forms, a constraint of the form: Avoid V1 will be proposed. This constraint hasnothing to do with an XP constituent in Spec of C, like in V2 languages, but with a phonetic requirement. This means that the initial element can be a head or an XP. 

scholarly journals The emergence of Brazilian Portuguese: Earlier evidence for the development of a partial null subject grammar

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Humberto Borges ◽  
Acrisio Pires
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Early Rise ◽  
The 19Th Century

Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth, BP) is currently analyzed as a partial null subject language (NSL). This work shows the earliest attested changes in the properties of null subjects in the Goiás dialect of Brazilian Portuguese. We analyze original data from colonial period manuscripts written in Goiás, a state located in Brazil’s center-west region, and provide empirical evidence of the loss of null subjects in BP grammars in historical data between the 18th and 19th century, preceding the period for which these changes have been reported regarding other dialects of BP. The analysis of our 18th and 19th century corpus shows an early significant rise in the realization of overt subjects. In addition, the loss of verb-subject (VS) free inversion, a property common to NSLs, drops from 57% in the 18th century to only 22.5% in the 19th century. On the other hand, a potential impoverishment of theverbal paradigm did not play a significant role in this early rise of overt subjects: only 15% of the clauses with a plural external argument in the 19th century data did not show overt agreement between the verb and the external argument, and all of them occur strictly with unaccusative or existential verbs. We take this as evidence that the loss of null subjects in BP was primarily linked to the loss of free VS-inversion, and not to the loss of clausal agreement. We propose that D-feature in T (an EPP-feature) was valued by V-movement to T in the 18th century, yielding a consistent NSL (Holmberg 2010). We argue that the loss of the requirement of the D-feature in T(tense) was a primary trigger for the partial loss of null subjects and parallel loss of free inversion from the 18th to the 19th century in Goiás BP, giving then rise to a partial NSL (without a D-feature in T).

Embedded null subjects in Capeverdean

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOÃO COSTA ◽  
FERNANDA PRATAS
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Status ◽  
Embedded Contexts

The status of Capeverdean as apro-drop language is controversial. Baptista (2002) contends that this Portuguese-based creole has null referential subjects with some types of predicates, while Pratas (2002, 2007) proposes that it has only expletive null subjects. She argues that the rare cases of root null subjects can be analyzed as instances of null expletives. The aim of this paper is to show that in Capeverdean there is an asymmetry in the distribution of null referential subjects. These are ruled out in root contexts, but allowed in some embedded contexts; this is the case when the null subject is bound by awh-operator or a quantifier. Following Holmberg's (2005) and Holmberg, Nayudu & Sheehan's (2009) analysis of null subjects, we offer an analysis of Capeverdean null subjects exploring the properties of T in the language (in particular, the lack of a rich inflectional system), the syntax of subjects, and the type of null category available. We claim that Capeverdean embedded null subjects are variables, licensed by an operator in the matrix clause. We show that these specific properties explain minimal differences between null subjects in Capeverdean and Brazilian Portuguese.

scholarly journals Brazilian Portuguese

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. e021021
Author(s):  
Maria Eugenia Lamoglia Duarte ◽  
Juliana Esposito Marins
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Progressive Loss ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Parametric Change ◽  
Apparent Variation

The aim of this article is twofold. In the first place, we present evidence that the syntactic change towards overt pronominal subjects observed in Brazilian Portuguese is not a stable phenomenon; rather, our empirical results allow to follow the parametric change in course and to identify the progressive loss of crucial properties related to ‘consistent’ null subject languages. The contrastive analysis with European Portuguese shows the stronger and the weaker structural contexts in this continuous battle towards the implementation of overt pronouns. Personal sentences (with definite and ‘indefinite’ – arbitrary and generic – subjects, usually referred as “impersonal”) are analyzed in more detail than those we consider impersonal sentences, which include a variety of structures, with climate, existential and unaccusative verbs, . They are, however, shown to have been deeply affected by the re-setting of the value of the Null Subject Parameter. Then, we will briefly compare Brazilian Portuguese with Finnish null subjects to conclude that Brazilian Portuguese does not seem to fit the group of the so called ‘partial’ null subject languages, which seem to exhibit null subjects in very restricted contexts, have a lexical expletive in apparent variation with null and generic subjects as well as in impersonal sentences, when it seems to be merged to avoid a verb-initial sentence. 

Shipibo-Spanish: Differences in residual transfer at the syntax-morphology and the syntax-pragmatics interfaces

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Sánchez ◽  
José Camacho ◽  
Jose Elías Ulloa
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
First Person ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Syntactic Property ◽  
Formal Instruction ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Discourse Organization ◽  
Different Levels

In this article, we present a study that tests the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace and Filiaci, 2006) at the syntax—pragmatics interface and its possible extension to the syntax—morphology interface in two groups of first language (L1) speakers of Shipibo with different levels of formal instruction in Spanish as a second language (L2). Shipibo is a mixed null subject language that only allows third person null subjects and has no person morphology on the verb. Spanish is a null subject language with rich person morphology on the verb. Evidence of acquisition of a core syntactic property (the extension of null subject licensing from third to first person subjects) was found in the speech of both groups of Shipibo speakers. No significant evidence of residual non-native patterns at the syntax—morphology interface was found (subject—verb mismatches in person) in the group with higher levels of formal instruction. At the syntax—pragmatics interface, we found non-native distribution of first person null subjects in both groups of Shipibo speakers that indicates residual transfer of discourse organization properties concerning topics from Shipibo into Spanish.

A Computer Corpus-Based Study of Subject Raising in Modern Portuguese

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-400
Author(s):  
Mark Davies
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Comprehensive Data ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Raising

This study is the first comprehensive, data-based examination of subject raising in Portuguese, and is based on 4500+ tokens in more than 26,500,000 words of text from both the written and spoken registers of Brazilian and European Portuguese. We have suggested that there are important differences in raising between the spoken and written registers, which are related to presumably universal production strategies for the two registers. Evidence suggests that morphological factors such as subject-verb agreement play an important role in determining whether raising occurs with first, second, and third person subjects. In terms of differences between the European and Brazilian dialects, we find that split agreement (eles parece saberem) and obligatory coreference {me parece ver um fantasma) are both more common in European Portuguese. Finally, these last two facts, along with a number of related phenomena, suggest that there are important differences in the underlying clause structure of European and Brazilian Portuguese, which can further be extended to include other languages such as Spanish.

Null Subjects in Old English

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly van Gelderen
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
English I

I review the proposal made by Sigurðsson (2011) that null arguments follow from third-factor principles, as in Chomsky 2005 . A number of issues remain unclear: for instance, the kind of topic that licenses null arguments in Modern Germanic, including Modern English. I argue that Old English is pro drop and add to the discussion Frascarelli (2007) started as to which topic licenses a null subject. I agree with Frascarelli and Hinterhölzl (2007) that the licensing topic in Modern Germanic and Old English is an aboutness-shift topic. I also argue that verb movement to C is necessary to license the empty argument in the modern Germanic languages (including Modern English), but not in Old English, since agreement is still responsible for licensing in that language, as in Italian.

scholarly journals The subject, it is here! The varying structural positions of preverbal subjects

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (spe) ◽  
pp. 113-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acrisio Pires
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Variable Binding ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Structural Positions

This paper analyzes preverbal overt subjects, comparing Brazilian Portuguese to (other) null-subject languages, especially within Romance. It explores syntactic and semantic properties, including resumption, ellipsis, quantifiers and scope, variable binding, ordering restrictions, pronominal distinctions, minimality violations, bare nouns and definiteness. It concludes that preverbal subjects in Brazilian Portuguese can be realized both in argumental positions (Specifier of the Inflectional or Tense Phrase) and non-argumental positions (Topic Phrase specifiers), with the possibility that both types of positions are filled by the subject in the same clause, incorporating properties that have been argued not to be found together in other languages.

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