Brazilian Portuguese argument ellipsis: A hidden case of clitic doubling
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Ezekiel Panitz [1]
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[1] Universidade de São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo
Brasil
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- Localización: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, ISSN-e 2385-4138, Vol. 9, Vol. 4, 2023 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Trending topics in Romance linguistics)
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
The present study puts forward a novel analysis of argument ellipsis (AE) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), according to which AE in BP takes place in a clitic doubling configuration, where the clitic is a phonologically null clitic and AE targets the clitic doubled DP. The clitic doubling analysis accounts for a number of the properties of AE in BP. Specifically, it accounts for the ability of AE to target object DPs; for the inability of AE to target subject DPs, including not only subjects of finite clauses but also subjects of small clauses and infinitival clauses; and for the inability of AE to target non-specific indefinite DPs and idiomatically construed DPs. The present study also reviews the influential anti-agreement theory of AE and argues that it does not offer a viable account of AE in BP, as it both undergenerates and overgenerates AE in BP.
