Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese
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Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin
Abstract
The analysis of the generic readings of Bare Singulars in Brazilian Portuguese is controversial: for Munn & Schmitt (1999, 2005) and Schmitt & Munn (2002) generic Bare Singulars are names of kinds, whereas for Müller (2002) they are indefinites bound by a generic operator. This paper provides two arguments against Müller: (i) relying on a detailed corpus study by Pires de Oliveira et al. (2007), we argue that Müller’s judgments are not shared by all speakers of Brazilian Portuguese; (ii) we provide theoretical and crosslinguistic evidence against analyzing generic Bare Singulars as indefinites bound by a generic operator. We make explicit Munn & Schmitt’s analysis of kind-referring BSs in BrP by proposing that they rely on Chierchia’s Down operator (1998). The contrast between generic Bare Singulars and generic Definite Singulars, both of which are kind-referring, is explained based on Dobrovie-Sorin & Pires de Oliveira (2007).
Abstract
The analysis of the generic readings of Bare Singulars in Brazilian Portuguese is controversial: for Munn & Schmitt (1999, 2005) and Schmitt & Munn (2002) generic Bare Singulars are names of kinds, whereas for Müller (2002) they are indefinites bound by a generic operator. This paper provides two arguments against Müller: (i) relying on a detailed corpus study by Pires de Oliveira et al. (2007), we argue that Müller’s judgments are not shared by all speakers of Brazilian Portuguese; (ii) we provide theoretical and crosslinguistic evidence against analyzing generic Bare Singulars as indefinites bound by a generic operator. We make explicit Munn & Schmitt’s analysis of kind-referring BSs in BrP by proposing that they rely on Chierchia’s Down operator (1998). The contrast between generic Bare Singulars and generic Definite Singulars, both of which are kind-referring, is explained based on Dobrovie-Sorin & Pires de Oliveira (2007).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part 1. Language contact and bilingualism
- Subject pronoun expression in bilinguals of two null subject languages 9
- Where are hiatuses left? 23
- Loanword adaptation in the French of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Montréal 39
-
Part 2. Phonology and interfaces
- Morphology and phonology of word-final vowel deletion in spoken Tuscan Italian 57
- Relativization, intonational phrases and rich left peripheries 73
- Stress domain effects in French phonology and phonological development 89
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Part 3. Syntax and morphophonology
- Syntactic realizations of plural in Romance and Germanic nominalizations 107
- The syntax of Spanish parecer and the status of little pro 125
- Two types of (apparently) ditransitive light verb constructions 139
- Modal ellipsis in French, Spanish and Italian 157
- Optional prepositions in Brazilian Portuguese 171
- An apparent ‘number case constraint’ in Romanian 185
-
Part 4. Semantics and morphology
- Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 203
- Aspect shift in stative verbs and their arguments 217
-
Part 5. Psycholinguistics
- Experimenting with wh -movement in Spanish 233
- How Spanish phonotactics informs psycholinuistic models of speech production 249
- Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part 1. Language contact and bilingualism
- Subject pronoun expression in bilinguals of two null subject languages 9
- Where are hiatuses left? 23
- Loanword adaptation in the French of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Montréal 39
-
Part 2. Phonology and interfaces
- Morphology and phonology of word-final vowel deletion in spoken Tuscan Italian 57
- Relativization, intonational phrases and rich left peripheries 73
- Stress domain effects in French phonology and phonological development 89
-
Part 3. Syntax and morphophonology
- Syntactic realizations of plural in Romance and Germanic nominalizations 107
- The syntax of Spanish parecer and the status of little pro 125
- Two types of (apparently) ditransitive light verb constructions 139
- Modal ellipsis in French, Spanish and Italian 157
- Optional prepositions in Brazilian Portuguese 171
- An apparent ‘number case constraint’ in Romanian 185
-
Part 4. Semantics and morphology
- Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 203
- Aspect shift in stative verbs and their arguments 217
-
Part 5. Psycholinguistics
- Experimenting with wh -movement in Spanish 233
- How Spanish phonotactics informs psycholinuistic models of speech production 249
- Index 265
