A distributed morphology approach to deverbal and non-deverbal nominalizations in Brazilian portuguese

• Grant number: 07/00968-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2007
• End date: August 31, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Scher
• Grantee: Ana Paula Scher
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

With this research project, I aim at investigating the morpho-syntactic and semantic aspects of the deverbal and non-deverbal event nominalizations in Brazilian Portuguese. My intention is to decribe and analyse its formation process and its interpretation in this language. In doing so, I will, mainly, use two theoretical approaches to the architecture of the grammar: Principles and Parameters (P&P)) (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 1986; Chomsky & Lasnik, 1993) in its most recent version, the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1995, 1998 e 1999), and the Distributed Morphology (DM) framework (Halle & Marantz, 1993, Marantz, 1997). Although both of the approaches present important distinctions, they share fundamental notions about the nature of the language faculty, such as the belief that this faculty is a genetic endowment for the human being. Furthermore, DM assumes all and every operation assumed by P&P to occur in the syntactic component of the grammar. The description and analysis of the nominalized forms in Brazilian Portuguese will help determining how the different existing nominalization processes in natural languages can reflect the properties of this faculty of the language. (AU)