Aspectos morfossintáticos de construções com XPs pré verbais no português brasileiro: Uma análise a partir da fatoração de EPP

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to present the description and analysis of XPs in the argumental or non-argumental position to the left of verbs, namely Spec-TP or Spec-CP, in Brazilian Portuguese (hereinafter BP). Another aim is to syntactically categorize these XPs, establishing their status from the morphosyntactic properties inherent to them. The hypothesis of this work is that elements of a diversified syntactic nature such as conventional subjects, expletive subjects and topics occupy the position to the left of the verb in BP to assess the EPP feature. However, this valuation presupposes the factorization of this feature in four active edge-traces in core Co or in core To - the features[uD], [uP], [uTop] and [uFoc]. The manner in which these features are valuated in BP justifies the fillings analyzed. In the Spec-CP position, topicalized and focused elements value features [uFoc] or [uTop] of core Co; in the Spec-TP position, the XPs value feature [uP] in addition to features [uD], [uFoc] and [uTop], which can be transferred from core Co to core To, in accordance with Chomsky (2008) and Miyagawa (2010). A parallel conjecture of this thesis is that edge-features are activated in BP in unusual contexts of the subject position, Spec-TP, due to a change in the referential property of core Tºs feature [uD]. This change is triggered by the morphology weakening of verbal concordance in that language. Thus, the result of the activation of edge-features in core To is thefilling of the canonical position of subject by distinct syntactic categories. The theoretical framework of this thesis, of generative line, is anchored in Chomsky (2001, 2005, 2008), Holmberg (2000, 2009, 2016) and Miyagawa (2010). The research is of a qualitative nature, and the data used for the analysis are taken from works already developed on the subject and also selected from oral language corpora. As a side effect of this proposal for the BP data analysis, different syntactic behaviors in languages, such as the phonological filling of subject position, topicalization, stylistic frontage, scrambling, among others, canbe explained on the basis of the relationship between the edge-features resulting from EPP factorization.