Indefinite null objects in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese

Sonia  Cyrino

Autores

Sonia Cyrino Universidade Estadual de Campinas https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1333-3851

Palavras-chave:

indefinite null objects, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, ellipsis licensing

Resumo

It is well known that (Peninsular) Spanish allows null objects when the antecedent is an indefinite DP, a bare plural. In addition to indefinite null objects, which can have animate or inanimate antecedents, Brazilian Portuguese (BP) allows definite null objects, but only with inanimate antecedents. According to the literature, inanimate definite null objects are related to the availability of VP ellipsis licensed by the verb that has moved up to an aspectual projection in BP, an inexistent construction in Spanish. Definite null objects in BP are cases of DP ellipsis, licensed in the same way. Animate definite null objects, being higher in the structure, are inaccessible for this licensing. The problem, then, is how to explain the lack of animacy restrictions in BP indefinite null objects. I propose that indefinite null objects are cases of NP ellipsis licensed by a null D. I assume an analysis for bare plurals as actually being DPs containing a null D licensed by an operator (DE) that encodes absence of definiteness. I propose that the licenser for indefinite null objects in both Spanish and BP is this null D present in bare plurals.

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