Sluicing and focus related particles in Brazilian Portuguese and Nupe

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2022.v18n1a55445

Keywords:

left periphery, Brazilian Portuguese, Nupe, sluicing-COMP generalization, FinP ellipsis.

Abstract

We argue that the C-element que, following fronted wh-elements and fronted focused elements more generally in Brazilian Portuguese, is realized as Fin, rather than Foc (MENDES & KANDYBOWICZ, 2021; pace MIOTO, 2001; MIOTO & KATO, 2005). We put together three observations from the literature: (i) the appearance of que is contingent on wh/focus fronting; (ii) que introduces a finite clause, and (iii) que disappears under sluicing. We present novel evidence that Nupe’s focus particle is a left-periphery element and that Nupe provides a concrete counterexample to Merchant’s (2001) sluicing-COMP generalization. A comparison between Nupe and Brazilian Portuguese regarding the presence of nonoperator material in sluicing constructions is crucial to establishing sluicing as FinP ellipsis (BALTIN, 2010; ABOH, 2010), instead of TP ellipsis, as standardly assumed, as well as que as a Fin element. We offer an analysis that captures all of the Brazilian Portuguese distributional facts, according to which que is a Fin head with a [finite] feature and an uninterpretable [ufoc] feature that must be licensed by Agree with a higher focus head.

Author Biographies

Gesoel Ernesto Ribeiro Mendes, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)

Gesoel Mendes received his BA and MA from UFPR and his PhD from the University of Maryland. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and his area of specialization is formal syntax. The main focus of Gesoel's research is on ellipsis and what we can learn from it about the grammar. From this perspective, he investigates a variety of grammatical phenomena, such as lexical gaps, extraction restrictions and single conjunct agreement.

Jason Kandybowicz, CUNY Graduate Center - City University of New York

 Jason Kandybowicz received his Ph.D from UCLA and is Professor of Linguistics at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He specializes in the syntax of West African languages and has published on a variety of topics in formal syntax, field linguistics, and the syntax-phonology interface. He is the author of Ikpana Interrogatives (OUP 2023), Anti-contiguity: A Theory of Wh- Prosody (OUP 2020), Africa’s Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches (OUP 2017), and The Grammar of Repetition: Nupe Grammar at the Syntax-Phonology Interface (John Benjamins 2008).
capa Revista Linguística v18 n1

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Published

2022-04-23

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2022): Studies in theory of grammar

Section

Articles

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