Null objects/full pronouns and topicality in brazilian portuguese

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) allows null objects whose antecedents are inanimate. However, there are certain sentences that seem to defy this generalization. These sentences also allow full pronouns in the position of the object. In the present work, I argue that the gap in these sentences is not the typical null object of BP, that is, there is no DP ellipsis. The question, then, is how to differentiate them (i) from those containing the true null object;; and (ii) from those that only allow the full pronoun. To discuss these issues, the present paper follows the generativist framework and builds on recent proposals for different types or topics from a cartographic perspective (FRASCARELLI; HINTERHÖLZ 2007). By comparing BP null objects to Hebrew null objects (ERTESCHIK-SHIR et al. 2013), I assume that different types of topics must be distinguished in terms of their role in discourse. BP, however, is not similar to Hebrew with respect to the Topic Drop phenomenon. This discussion grounds the proposal on the distribution of the null object and full pronoun in BP advanced in this work. The paper intends to contribute to the discussion about the null object / full pronoun alternation in BP.

Keywords

• Null objects
• Full pronouns
• Brazilian Portuguese