What psych verbs and other verbs disclose about the role of Semantic Prominence and Thematic Hierarchy in affixal selection

This paper analyses the construction of deverbal adjectives in European Portuguese, focusing on the interface between morphology and semantics, specifically on the role of Thematic Hierarchy and Semantic Prominence on affixal selection.Supported by paradigmatic morphology, the paper shows that suffixes that work in macro-paradigms of deverbal adjectives establish a relationship with specific semantic features of the lexical-semantic structure of the base verb in order to construct the derivative. The analysis concludes that suffixes are sensitive to thematic hierarchy, which is based on the semantic prominence of features of the verbs’ theta-roles at work in the paradigm. Data from psych verbs is highly relevant to this finding.The paper is dedicated to Professor Ana Maria Brito, who has always been keenly aware that scientific knowledge is not confined to a specific theory.

A “língua desportuguesa”. Próclise no português angolano e no português moçambicano

The expansion of proclisis in contexts that typically exclude it in European Portuguese has been described as a syntactic feature that characterizes Angolan Portuguese. This article studies the presence of this feature in the literary language, based on a corpus of texts by Angolan and Mozambican authors, representing two generations: authors born in the colonial period (the Angolan Pepetela and the Mozambicans Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane) and authors born after the independence of their countries (the Angolan Ondjaki and the Mozambican Lucílio Manjate). The study results show that proclisis has a stronger presence in the works of Angolan authors than Mozambican authors, suggesting that the shift towards the generalization of proclisis is more advanced, socially widespread and accepted in Angolan Portuguese than in Mozambican Portuguese, although it is visible in both. It is in non-finite domains that the contrast between the two African varieties is more evident. Not only is the frequency of proclisis to the infinitive higher in the Angolan Portuguese corpus, but only there is proclisis to the past participle attested. Comparing the two generations of writers, we see a significant rise of proclisis to the infinitive between Pepetela and Ondjaki and it is in Ondjaki’s works that proclisis to the past participle occurs. Regarding the Mozambican Portuguese corpus, however, there seems to be a regression in the advance of proclisis between Mia Couto and Manjate. A closer look at Rabhia, by Manjate (2017), suggests that young speakers with a high level of education may perceive the spread of proclisis as a socially marked feature.

Greek derivational affixes roots or categorizers?

In this paper, I am concerned with the status of derivational affixes in Distributed Morphology: are these roots or categorizers? I will compare Greek to English and Dutch, as some derivational affixes in these two languages have been claimed to be roots. I will show that Greek derivational affixes are categorizers, and I will offer an explanation that capitalizes on the stress properties of Greek derivational affixes.

A construção da identidade da mulher num acórdão sobre violência doméstica

In this paper we propose to demonstrate the analytical and critical potential of Discourse Studies for understanding identity constructs in a judicial decision on domestic violence.Taking as reference the concept of ideology in the sociocognitive framework (Van Dijk, 1995), that allows linking ideology and discourse, and using enunciative-pragmatic analytical categories, we will analyse certain aspects of a judicial decision, which demonstrate how the discourse structures favour a stigmatising and blaming representation of the woman victim of domestic violence and the consequent excuse and legitimisation of violence against her.The object of analysis will be a decision of the Court of Appeal of Porto, Portugal, issued on October 11, 2017, concerning a domestic violence lawsuit, in which the adultery of the assaulted woman is an argument for excusing the violence exerted by the aggressors.To implement our study, we will detach and analyse the linguistic means used to represent the actors involved; the predications attributed to them and the verbal processes in which they participate (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009). We will also detach and analyse instances of doxainvocation and evidentiality, occurrences of strong evaluative modality and mechanisms of illocutionary reinforcement, as strategies for argumentation and legitimisation.

Demonstratives, definiteness effects and the type-token distinction

Definiteness effects have been attested in the literature for some DPs complementing HAVE (= English have and their counterparts in other languages). In this paper, which focuses on English and Spanish, demonstrative DPs are shown to be affected by the type-token distinction in HAVE contexts: the internal argument of HAVE receives a type reading in these cases and rejects a to-ken interpretation. The “type restriction on demonstrative DPs” (TRD) is shown to follow from the need for narrow focus NPs complementing HAVE to receive a hearer-new reading, a well-known property of presentational structures. Type readings of demonstrative DPs are shown to meet this condition. Apparent exceptions to the TRD effect include (i) DPs in so-called “remainder contexts”; (ii) structures in which the relevant DP is the subject of a small clause (sometimes with a non-overt predicate); and (iii) structures containing a number of anti-assertive operators. The contexts in (i) are shown to be hearer-new, in spite of being definite. Those in (ii) and (iii) provide DPs which escape the narrow focus interpretation that gives ride to this variety of the definiteness effect.

Construções reflexiva, recíproca e média de clítico nulo no português brasileiro reconceptualização de eventos e emergência de uma nova construção

tuguese se constructions, posited in the transitive continuum, have a constructional counterpart in which the clitic is absent. The null clitic construction, observed in all the seconstructions (i.e. reflexive, reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive and impersonal) is more frequently used in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) than in European Portuguese (EP). The phenomenon has largely been studied from a morphosyntatic lens or as a result of an ongoing deletion of clitics in BP, shying away from the possible implications in terms of the semantic differentiation between overt and null se constructions. This chapter focuses on reflexive, reciprocal and middle se constructions and aims to investigate what factors determine the choice between overt seconstructions and their null counterpart. Based on an extensive usage-feature and profile-based analysis, and using multivariate statistical methods, we show that reflexive, reciprocal and middle null se constructions are associated with a reconceptualization of an event as non-energetic or absolute, profiling the result of the event. On the other hand, the overt counterpart profiles the moment of change, construing the event as energetic. Reflexive and reciprocal constructions are more frequently encoded by an overt se construction whereas middle construction (in all its subcategories) is more frequently encoded by the null se construction. The study concludes that null reflexive, reciprocal and middle se constructions are new constructions semantically differentiated from overt se constructions, which, we argue, has wider implications, namely for reconceptualization of voice patterns in BP which tend towards ergativization.

Ensinar gramática Percursos que se criam, caminhos que se trilham

This article has as framework the inductive approach to grammar teaching, in which the students are expected to discover and to recognize grammar rules through data observation, detection of regularities and generalization. It is based on Ana Maria Brito’s works in which grammar learning is viewed as “discovery learning”. In the first part, the author’s body of work on this subject is revisited, in order to create an unified suggestion of grammar teaching. In a second part, a teaching sequence plan is presented: based on grammar teaching as reflective activity, it shows a consistent and articulated development of learner’s syntactic knowledge from early ages, namely from the 1st cycle of basic education

Das inferências à interpretação recursiva na leitura do texto literário em L2

When it comes to L2 reading, literary texts are often seen as barriers which are difficult to overcome even in higher proficiency levels, since they do not rely solely on a certain level of language performance. This text questions the influence that inferential processing (Kintsch 1998; Koda 2004) has on deep comprehension (Bernhardt 1991: 2011) and on the distance that this genre demands from its reader (Armstrong 2013; Olson 1994). Advantages of literary reading are pointed out in what concerns a L2 learning process, insofar as they leave a mark on the reader’s mental flexibility, as s/he is forced to escape cognitive routines, and led into feeding a future cognitive reservoir (Armstrong 2013; Paradis 2004; Pinto 2010; 2013).

Olímpia era tão alta que a sua cabeça desaparecia entre as nuvens a expressão de grau na obra A girafa que comia estrelas de José Eduardo Agualusa

The main objective of this article is to reflect on the notion of degree and the structures that allow its expression, highlighting its importance for reading comprehension and the development of (meta)linguistic and communicative skills of the student. So, first, there will be a brief review of the expression of degree and reading comprehension. In order to frame the theme and the contents at the teaching level, an analysis of the normative documents that guide the teaching of Portuguese in the Primary School and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education will be presented, showing how the expression of degree arises proposal for approach. In this sense, the different guiding documents for the teaching of Portuguese will be analyzed, by years of schooling, identifying the domains in which the content appears, recording its direct and indirect occurrences. This content is mainly proposed in the domain of grammar. Later, the work A girafa que comia estrelas, of José Eduardo Agualusa, will be explored, showing how the degree’s expression mechanisms help in the construction of the meanings of the text. Finally, there will be a brief reflection on the need for scientific and solid knowledge about the structure and functioning of language in order to access the meaning of the text and outline relevant and consequential pedagogical activities