Sintagmas indefinidos com função de foco no português brasileiro: uma análise experimental

Abstract

This paper’s goal is to investigate, by means of a psycholinguistic experiment, if variables such the type of question (polar questions or wh-questions) or the type of answer (with or without movement) influence the acceptability of Brazilian Portuguese (PB) clauses with focused indefinite phrases. We consider acceptability the level of answer’s adequacy for a given question according to the speaker’s perception. We assume, as the theoretical basis for this research, the semantic treatment for questions provided by Hamblin (1973). We also adopt Rooth (1985; 1995)’s proposal for the semantic of focus and Heim (1982; 1991)’s semantic treatment for indefinite phrases. This research was motivated by the theoretical analysis developed in Rosa-Silva (in press). The author argues that the question type or moving strategies influence the acceptability of answers with focus on an indefinite phrase. In order to verify if these results held empirically, we developed a psycholinguistic experiment, which was conducted using an off-line questionnaire. The experiment aimed to assess the degree to which answers with focused indefinite phrases were acceptable, considering answers with or without movement as well as dialogues with polar questions and wh-questions. Eighty-fourparticipants have answered this questionnaire. The statistical analysis revealed that the question variable influences the utterance’s acceptability. Dialogues with wh-questions have received greater scores when compared to polar questions. On the other hand, the movement variable has not produced statistically relevant results and it does not seem to influence the dialogue’s acceptability. Nevertheless, some results and tendencies in our data seems to imply that, with a greater sample, this conclusion might be different.