The Morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax)

"Recent trends in syntax and morphology have shown the great importance of doing research on variation in closely related languages. This book centers on the study of the morphology and syntax of the two major Romance Languages spoken in Latin America from this perspective. The works presented here either compare Brazilian Portuguese with European Portuguese or compare Latin American Spanish and Peninsular Spanish, or simply compare Portuguese and its varieties with Spanish and its varieties. The chapters advance on a great variety of theoretical questions related to coordination, clitics, hyper-raising, infinitives, null objects, null subjects, hyper-raising, passives, quantifiers, pseudo-clefts, questions and distributed morphology. Finally, this book provides new empirical findings and enriches the descriptions made about Portuguese and Spanish Spoken in the Americas by providing new generalizations, new data and new statistical evidence that help better understand the nature of such variation. The studies contained in this book show a vast array of new phenomena in these young varieties, offering empirical and theoretical windows to language variation and change" -- From the publisher Spanish And Portuguese Were Romance Languages Spoken In The Iberian Peninsula And Were Brought To America As The Languages Of The Colonisers In The 16th Century. Along The Centuries, The Two Languages Developed Specific Properties That Distinguish Them From The Varieties Spoken In The Old World. This Work Offers A Rich Comparative Material Which Helps Us In The Understanding Of Linguistic Change And Variation. Microparametric Variation In Spanish And Portuguese: The Null Subject Parameter And The Role Of The Verb Inflectional Paradigm -- The Null Subject Parameter Revisited: The Evolution From Null Subject Spanish And Portuguese To Dominican Spanish And Brazilian Portuguese -- On The Notion Of Partial (non-) Pro-drop In Romance -- Rebel Without A Case: Quantifier Floating In Brazilian Portuguese And Spanish -- Subject And Topic Hyper-raising In Brazilian Portuguese: A Case Study On Reference Sets For Economy Computations -- Constructions In Portuguese: The Case Of -- Inflected Infinitives And Restructuring In Brazilian Portuguese -- The Null Subject In Romania Nova -- The External Possessor Construction In European Portuguese And Brazilian Portuguese -- Agreement And Dom With Impersonal Se: A Comparative Study Of Mexican And Pennisular Spanish -- Some Syntactic And Pragmatic Aspects Of Wh-in-situ In Brazilian Portuguese -- Psuedo-clefts And Semi-clefts: An Analysis Based On Portuguese -- From [o[que]] To [o Que] In Brazilian Portuguese Free Relatives: A Diachronic View -- A Study Of Truncated Nominal Forms In Brazilian Portuguese: Their Derivation And Their Relation To Nonverbal Form Classes. Edited By Mary A. Kato And Francisco Ordóñez. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Cover 1 Series 3 The Morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America 4 Copyright 4 Contents 6 Foreword 8 List of Contributors 14 1. Microparametric variation in Spanish and Portuguese: The null subject parameter and the role of the verb inflectional paradigm 18 2. The null subject parameter revisited: The evolution from null subject Spanish and Portuguese to Dominican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese 44 3. On the notion of partial (non-​) pro-​drop in Romance 66 4. Rebel without a Case: Quantifier floating in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish 95 5. Subject and topic hyper-​raising in Brazilian Portuguese: A case study on reference sets for economy computations 124 6. constructions in Portuguese: The case of 152 7. Inflected infinitives and restructuring in Brazilian Portuguese 174 8. The null object in Romania Nova 194 9. The external possessor construction in European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese 221 10. Agreement and DOM with impersonal se: A comparative study of Mexican and Peninsular Spanish 253 11. Some syntactic and pragmatic aspects of WH-​in-​situ in Brazilian Portuguese 276 12. Pseudo-​clefts and semi-​clefts: An analysis based on Portuguese 303 13. From [o[que]] to [o que] in Brazilian Portuguese Free Relatives: A diachronic view 325 14. A study of truncated nominal forms in Brazilian Portuguese: Their derivation and their relation to nonverbal form classes 349 Name Index 372 Subject Index 378 Language Index 382