The lack of lexical expletives in Brazilian Portuguese
Mary Kato, Unicamp; Maria Eugenia Duarte, UFRJ.
1. The data
Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has been claimed to show an increasing preference for overt
referential subjects since the 19th century, while retaining the null expletive in
impersonal constructions (exs. (2), see Duarte, 1995). A similar change is occurring in
Dominican Spanish (DSp), with regard to referential subjects, but not with impersonal
constructions, where a lexical expletive ello has entered the system (exs.(3), cf. Toribio
1996). The first hypothesis that we could entertain about this difference is that, in the
long run, BP might also create a lexical expletive. But the hypothesis that we want to
entertain is that it may not, and that UG predicts a more intricate language typology,
where a language can exhibit variation.
2. The aims of the paper
The aim of this paper is a) to show the variation found in impersonal constructions in
Modern Brazilian Portuguese (MBP) and b) to propose that MBP found a way to license
both the impersonal construction, the old form, or to comply with the EPP through
movement of a lower constituent to the subject position (exs(4)), a phenomenon well
known to occur in Topic-oriented languages. The third aim is to look for a theory that
formally defines a language of such type.
3.Theoretical Assumptions
Endorsing Chomsky (2005), we assume that agreement features originates in C and
percolates down to T. Following Miyagawa (2005), we will admit that discourse
features (Focus or Topic) can also originate in C, and can percolate to T. Miyagawa
explores two main types of languages: a) agreement-prominent, namely those in which
agreement features are inherited by T (English , for example), and b) discourseprominent, namely those in which a discourse feature is inherited by T (Japanese, for
example):
(1) Feature Inheritance (parameter)(φ: agreement features, δ: discourse features)
a. Cφ, δ → Tδ … (discourse-prominent - e.g. Japanese, Korean)
b. Cφ, δ → Tφ … (agreement-prominent - e.g. English)
(See also Jiménez-Fernández and Miyagawa, ms)
4. Ellaborating on Miyagawa’s theory
A third type of language is considered by Miyagawa (2005), with either agreement or a
discourse feature percolating to T ( Turkish ). The same happens with other
Parameters such as the Null Subject Parameter (NSP), which allows partial NS
languages (Finnish and BP).
(1) c. Cφ, δ → Tδ … (discourse-prominent ) & Cφ, δ → Tφ … (agreement-prominent)
(or the so-called Topic and Subject prominent languages, Li & Thompson 1974).
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(2)
a. ec chove em São Paulo.
ec rains in São Paulo.
‘ It rains in São Paulo.’
b. ec tem muita manga na Bahia.
has many mangoes in Bahia ‘There are many mangoes in Bahia.
c. ec. me custou sair de casa.
ec cost me to leave the house ‘It cost me to leave the house.
d. ec parece que eles sairam.
ec seems that they left
‘It seems that they left.’
(3)
a. Ello quiere llover.
it wants
to rain
‘It is going to rain.
b Ello hay muchos mangos en Bahia.
it has many mangos in Bahia ‘There are many mangoes in Bahia.’
c. Ello parece que no hay azúcar’’
it seems that not have sugar
‘It seems there is no sugar.’
d. Ello llegó el vuelo de las 10 hora’s.
It arrived the flight of the 10oclock ‘The 10 o’clock flight has arrived.’
(4)
a. Sao Paulo chove, Rio faz calor.
São Paulo rains, Rio makes heat
b. A Bahia tem muita manga.
the Bahia has many mangoes
c. Eu custei pra sair de casa.
I cost
to leave the house
d. Eles parecem que saíram.
they seem that left+pl
e. A impressora acabou a tinta.
the printer finished the toner
‘It rains in SP, and it is hot in Rio’
‘It cost me to leave the house’.
‘They seem to have left.’
‘The toner of the printer finished”
References
Duarte, M. E. (1995) A Perda do Princípio “Evite Pronome” no Português Brasileiro.
Tese de doutorado. UNICAMP.
Jiménez-Fernández, A. and S. Miyagawa (ms) A fature-inheritance approach to root
phenomena and parametric variation.
Li, C-N. and S. Thompson (1976) Subject and topic: a new typology of language. In:
Li, C-N (ed.) Subject and Topic. 457-489. New York: Academic Press.
Miyagawa Shigeru (2005) Unifying Agreement and Agreement-less Languages. MIT
Working Papers in Linguistics
Toribio. Jackeline (2006). Dialectal variation in the licensing of null referential
expletive subjects. In: C.Parodi, C.Quicoli, M.Saltarelli & M.L. Zubizarreta
(orgs) Aspects of Romance Linguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press.
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