Morfossintaxe de Caso nos Pronomes Pessoais do PB/MG atual

Abstract

In this dissertation we investigate personal pronouns in Brazilian nonstandard Portuguese, examining more specifically the dialect of Minas Gerais. Assuming the proposals of Bittner & Hale (1996), Bayer et al (2001) and others, incorporated under Weerman-Vermeul & Evers (2002) and Neeleman & Szendröi (2006) works, we argue that the extended nominal projection, according to Grimshaw (1991), can project a shell with information for Case [KP [DP [NP]]]. This model shows specific implications for the form and syntactic behavior of pronouns, which can correspond to higher structural derivations than D or N, rendering phonologically either DP, either KP. Based on this model, we investigate the uses of pronouns understood here as default pronouns in complement positions, within structures like (i) "ajuda eu" (help I-NOM) as opposed to the use of clitics in structures like (ii) "me ajuda" (help me-ACC), and even in structures with clitic doubling, in sentences like (iii) "me ajuda eu" (help me-ACC I-NOM), the latter very present in some Minas Gerais dialects, as evidenced by Diniz (2007). Starting from realizations like (i) and (ii) we argue that in (i) there would be a KP and in (ii) a DP. Speakers whose grammar produces sentences such as (iii) have reanalyzed the items me and te as verbal prefixes that agree with the object DPs eu (I) and você (you), reinforcing their definite interpretation for the features [+speaker] / [+addressee] respectively, as opposed to arbitrary interpretations for these pronouns in sentences like empresa de telefone não está preocupada em ajudar você não (phone company is not worried about helping you, no) (the pronoun você interpreted here as arbitrary, meaning something like someone or anyone). Synchronic and diachronic arguments support our analysis. Furthermore we propose an account for the maintenance of clitic forms for 1st and 2nd person in the dialect under scrutiny when the 3rd person clitic is disappearing.