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The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese

  • Mary Aizawa Kato
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Variation within and across Romance Languages
This chapter is in the book Variation within and across Romance Languages

Abstract

Old and Classic Portuguese had two positions for contrastive focus: one at the sentence initial position, followed by the verb, a ‘V2’ sort of pattern (XPVS), and one at the sentence final position, constituting the Romance post-verbal subject (V(XP)S). This paper analyzes the role of the copula in the innovations that occurred in Modern Portuguese focus structures: (a) the expansion of cleft constructions, from wh-clefts to that-clefts, (b) from inverse clefts to canonical clefts and (c) the reduction of that-clefts, a grammaticalization that affected only Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In European Portuguese (EP), XPVS and V(XP)S survive together with modern clefts while in BP clefts and reduced clefts took over the old constructions completely.

Abstract

Old and Classic Portuguese had two positions for contrastive focus: one at the sentence initial position, followed by the verb, a ‘V2’ sort of pattern (XPVS), and one at the sentence final position, constituting the Romance post-verbal subject (V(XP)S). This paper analyzes the role of the copula in the innovations that occurred in Modern Portuguese focus structures: (a) the expansion of cleft constructions, from wh-clefts to that-clefts, (b) from inverse clefts to canonical clefts and (c) the reduction of that-clefts, a grammaticalization that affected only Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In European Portuguese (EP), XPVS and V(XP)S survive together with modern clefts while in BP clefts and reduced clefts took over the old constructions completely.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.20kat

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
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