Seminario de Lingüística Teórica LyCC: "Tensed and Non-tensed Nominalization of the Infinitive in Portuguese"

Lun, 31-01-2011; 01:00
Sede CCHS

Por Ana Maria Brito (FLUP-CLUP)

Caro Baroja Room 1D

I will present an analysis of three types of nominalization of the infinitive in European Portuguese. 
In the nominal infinitive, a process is denoted and it is why unaccusative verbs, generally culmination verbs, are forbidden. In the literature it has been said that accomplishment verbs cannot be used as nominal infinitives; however, the presence of some aspectual modifiers that force a durative and unbounded process reading may allow the occurrence of these verbs. The semantic restriction on the nominal infinitive is also related to the fact that it never pluralizes. Contrasting with the nominal infinitive, Portuguese developed many lexicalized infinitives that behave as countable nouns.
It is also possible to have a nominalization of an infinitival clause, denoting a fact; because it contains the inflected infinitive, it will be analysed as the nominalization of CP, differing from Spanish, which only contains the nominalization of TP.
There is also an intermediate and mixed construction, typically preceded by a possessive that binds the null subject and with some verbal properties that argue in favour of its tensed nature.
Following de Miguel (1996) for Spanish, I will propose that the infinitive marker is not a uniform element: in the nominal infinitive, –r is derivational and marks imperfectivity and process; in the nominalization of a clause, –r is an inflectional marker and is not aspectually restricted. As expected, the derivational –r has no tense meaning, whilst the inflectional –r is related to tense.
The analysis of the three constructions will be made according to the framework of Distributed Morphology, particularly according to the development of this model made by Alexiadou (2001) and Alexiadou, Iordǎchioaia & Schäfer (2009).

Organiza: Grupo de Investigación ‘Lingüística y Ciencia Cognitiva’. Línea Cambio, variación y cognición en el lenguaje. 

Seminario de Lingüística Teórica LyCC: "Tensed and Non-tensed Nominalization of the Infinitive in Portuguese"
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