Brazilian Portuguese noun phrases: An optimality theoretic perspective

Abstract

In this paper we examine the nominal system in Brazilian Portuguese (BrP), a challenge to cross-linguistic studies which rely on the generalization that a language that has indefinites should not have bare nouns. BrP has bare singulars, bare plurals, singular and plural indefinites. We examine the behavior of these phrases, mostly in object position of episodic predicates, and propose that each has a different semantics. The nominal system of BrP can be successfully explained, we argue, within the bi-directional Optimality Theory (biOT) theoretical framework developed by Hendriks et al. (2010). This approach allows us to describe and explain patterns of competition, and accounts for language variation by constraint reranking. For BrP, we propose the synchronic coexistence of two grammars: bare plurals appear in the formal variety of BrP that maintains plural agreement, and bare singulars appear in informal spoken BrP, along with plural definites and indefinites that lack plural agreement on the noun. Under this analysis, BPs denote inclusive plurals, while BSs get a non-atomic semantics that covers both mass and plural interpretations. * We would like to thank the two JPL reviewers, whose comments were really important for us to give the paper its final form.

Preliminary remarks on the nominal phrase in Cape Verdean: The semantics of bare nouns cross-linguistically

“…CV is the mother tongue of nearly all Cape Verdeans living on the islands as well as those who live abroad. It is a Portuguese-based creole, that is, European Portuguese (EP) is the lexifier language (Pereira 2006). EP is the only official language in Cape Verde.…”