The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics

Abstract

Cognate Null-Obj: the null object refers to an object easily recovered from the lexical content of the verb:(3) Durante as minhas férias , quero sobretudo ler__.during the my vacation want mainly read 'During my vacation, I mainly want to read.' Arbitrary Null-Obj, where the missing object is understood as part of the lexical meaning of some verbs:(4) Isto leva à seguinte conclusão.this leads to-the following conclusion 'This leads (us/people) to the following conclusion.'Anaphoric Null-Obj: the null object has a linguistic antecedent.(5) Ele experimentou o casaco mas não comprou__.he tried on the coat but not bought 'He tried on the coat but he did not buy (it).'As shown in the examples (1) to ( 5), Portuguese allows different types of Null_Obj.In this work we will focus on definite anaphoric and situational null objects, i.e., the cases in ( 2) and ( 5).VP ellipsis (henceforth,VPE) designates the lack of the phonological expression that includes the verbal complement of a verb or verbal sequence and optionally its adjunct(s).Early analyses on VP ellipsis focused on English.In this language VP ellipsis only occurs with auxiliary verbs, the infinitival marker to and the copulative verb "be":(6) Mary loves Peter and Ann does __, too.(7) Mary wants to buy an encyclopedia and I also want to __. (8) A: Who is the best basketball player in the neighborhood?B: John is __.The study of predicate ellipsis has been extended to other languages, and a different strategy of VP ellipsis has been put forth, where the elliptical VP is licensed by a main verb.Goldberg (2005) called this strategy verb stranding VPE.Raposo (1986) was the first to claim the existence of this strategy in EP.(9) A: A empregada colocou os livros na estante?the housemaid put the books on-the shelf 'Did the housemaid put the books on the shelf?' B: Sim, colocou __.Yes, put Yes, she did.Within the Principles and Parameters framework, VPE analyses mainly focused on the licensing condition(s) on the elliptical constituent and the recovering strategy of ellipsis.We will retain these topics in the study of VPE in EP and BP.

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