“Where” no interrogative in portuguese spoken in Libolo (Angola) – comparisons with data in Capeverdean from St. Nicholas

Abstract

Our goal is to support the partial analysis suggested by Andrade (2015a) that a set of sentences introduced by “where” when in a not interrogative question in the Portuguese spoken at Libolo/Angola (PLb) doesn’t introduce relative sentences, but it introduces sentences with a syntactic discursive category. In order to corroborate our analysis, we take as a basis some studies on the Capeverdean, variety from St. Nicholas (CSN), developed within the syntax-phonology interface framework. Our conclusion is that the sentences with “where”, when in a not interrogative question in PLb, and that is always followed by “é que” (“is that”), can be involved in the concept of highlighter, a syntactic discursive marker. The comparison between PLb and CSN, presented in this paper, is made between restructured languages (following Holm, 2004): (i) the PLb that is considered a partially restructured language – see Figueiredo e Santos (2014) among others; and (ii) the CSN that is considered a fully restructured language – see Zanoli (2015) among others.

Keywords

• “Where” no interrogative
• Portuguese spoken at Libolo
• Capeverdean from St. Nicholas
• Highlighter