Chapter 11. Value and cardinality in the evaluation of bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese
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Suzi Lima
Abstract
Previous studies have explored two semantic features – cardinality and volume – to shown that bare singulars such as banana in Eu comi banana (I ate banana) allows a count and a mass interpretation in Brazilian Portuguese. In this chapter we explore whether other features such as value impact the interpretation of such nouns. The results of our priming and judgment studies indicate that cardinality is grammatically more relevant than value when interpreting Brazilian Portuguese bare singulars. However, we found a significant increase in reaction times when value was primed early. Therefore, value plays a role in the processing of bare singulars.
Abstract
Previous studies have explored two semantic features – cardinality and volume – to shown that bare singulars such as banana in Eu comi banana (I ate banana) allows a count and a mass interpretation in Brazilian Portuguese. In this chapter we explore whether other features such as value impact the interpretation of such nouns. The results of our priming and judgment studies indicate that cardinality is grammatically more relevant than value when interpreting Brazilian Portuguese bare singulars. However, we found a significant increase in reaction times when value was primed early. Therefore, value plays a role in the processing of bare singulars.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
A. Interfaces
- Chapter 1. Picard subject clitics 11
- Chapter 2. A child’s view of Romance modification 35
- Chapter 3. Definite determiners in Romance 57
-
B. Bridging issues at the CP-TP-vP levels
- Chapter 4. Differential object marking, oblique morphology, and enriched case hierarchies 81
- Chapter 5. A deletion account of referential null objects in Basque Spanish 97
- Chapter 6. Same EPP, different null subject type 111
- Chapter 7. On (un)grammatical sequences of se s in Spanish 127
- Chapter 8. On the interpretation of the Spanish 1st person plural pronoun 143
-
C. Bridging issues at the PP-DP levels
- Chapter 9. French ne … que exceptives in prepositional contexts 163
- Chapter 10. Interpreting reduplicated numerals in Old Ibero-Romance 177
- Chapter 11. Value and cardinality in the evaluation of bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 193
- Chapter 12. Formality by distance in Spanish and Catalan 207
-
D. Bridging issues in linguistics
- Chapter 13. Cyclical change in affixal negation 225
- Chapter 14. Code-mixing and semantico-pragmatic resources in francophone Maine 243
- Chapter 15. Exceptionality and ungrammaticality in Spanish stress 257
- Index 273
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
A. Interfaces
- Chapter 1. Picard subject clitics 11
- Chapter 2. A child’s view of Romance modification 35
- Chapter 3. Definite determiners in Romance 57
-
B. Bridging issues at the CP-TP-vP levels
- Chapter 4. Differential object marking, oblique morphology, and enriched case hierarchies 81
- Chapter 5. A deletion account of referential null objects in Basque Spanish 97
- Chapter 6. Same EPP, different null subject type 111
- Chapter 7. On (un)grammatical sequences of se s in Spanish 127
- Chapter 8. On the interpretation of the Spanish 1st person plural pronoun 143
-
C. Bridging issues at the PP-DP levels
- Chapter 9. French ne … que exceptives in prepositional contexts 163
- Chapter 10. Interpreting reduplicated numerals in Old Ibero-Romance 177
- Chapter 11. Value and cardinality in the evaluation of bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 193
- Chapter 12. Formality by distance in Spanish and Catalan 207
-
D. Bridging issues in linguistics
- Chapter 13. Cyclical change in affixal negation 225
- Chapter 14. Code-mixing and semantico-pragmatic resources in francophone Maine 243
- Chapter 15. Exceptionality and ungrammaticality in Spanish stress 257
- Index 273
