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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1903/1882
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| Title: | Impoverished Morphology and A-movement out of Case Domains |
| Authors: | Rodrigues , Cilene Aparecida Nunes |
| Advisors: | Hornstein , Norbert |
| Department/Program: | Linguistics |
| Type: | Dissertation |
| Sponsors: | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland
University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) |
| Keywords: | Language, Linguistics (0290)
Verbal and nominal agreement; A-movement; null subjects, Partial pro-drop languages |
| Issue Date: | 12-Aug-2004 |
| Abstract: | This dissertation suggests that referential 3rdP null subjects in Modern Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Finnish are residues of A-movement, rather than null pronouns.
These grammars exhibit weak 3rdP verbal and possessive agreement morphology, and do not obey the Avoid Pronoun Principle, allowing non-emphatic overt pronouns in subject position. This state of affairs has affected the licensing of referential null subjects, which are licensed only within embedded domains.
I correlate the loss of agreement with this peculiar behavior of null subjects and advance the hypothesis that BP and Finnish are not pro-drop grammars, arguing on empirical grounds that in BP and Finnish null subject inside the embedded clauses and possessive DPs are residues of A-movement. Putting it boldly, these null subjects are salient copies of their antecedents.
The arguments I present in favor of a movement analysis are: (i) Finnish and BP null subjects have an anaphoric behavior, requiring a sentential an... |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/1882 |
| Appears in Collections: | Linguistics Theses and Dissertations
UM Theses and Dissertations
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