Series | SAIL
Edited book | Journeys in Portuguese Language
Chapter | Movimento do verbo finito e advérbios (bem) baixos em português brasileiro

Movimento do verbo finito e advérbios (bem) baixos em português brasileiro

Uma aproximação à ordem ‘ideal’ de línguas de núcleo inicial?

Adverbial Phrases (AdvPs) tend to appear to the right of the VP in head initial languages. This is only a trend, as head initial languages generally depart from this ideal standard to some extent. This paper discusses the position of the finite (V)erb in Brazilian Portuguese, by taking the lowest AdvPs of Cinque’s Hierarchy as diagnostics for V raising. The three lowest AdvPs, namely do nada ‘out of nowhere’, de novo ‘again’ and com frequência ‘often’ are preferentially pied-piped by the lexical V in the whose-picture mode of pied-piping. Thus, they are linearised to the right of the V. That would make Brazilian Portuguese closer to the ideal derivations for head initial languages at least if one takes these three AdvPs.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Oct. 2, 2019 | Accepted: July 28, 2020 | Published: Dec. 9, 2020 | Language: pt

Keywords Verb movement Head initial languages Cinque hierarchy Low adverbs Brazilian Portuguese


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