Collective and distributive verbal predicates and their combination with anti-distributive and anti-collective modifiers: a semantic analysis

• Grant number: 24/05082-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Renato Miguel Basso
• Grantee: Ana Carolina de Sousa Araújo
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to analyze the semantics of sentences generated from the combination of distributive, collective and ambiguous verbal predicates and the modifiers 'junto(s)', that can be understood as an anti-distributive, and 'sozinhos(s)', that can be classified as an anti-collective, since such sentences presents a behavior that is different from what is expected by the initial hypothesis, according to which sentences with distributive and collective verbal predicates would present ungrammatical or redundant readings when combined with the expressions 'junto(s)' and 'sozinho(s)', and sentences with ambiguous predicates would present readings essentially collective or distributive after this combination. However, preliminary analyzes show that this hypothesis and its consequences are not sustainable. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate what are the semantic properties of the verbal predicates and modifiers analyzed that make the sentences resulting from the combination between them possible in Brazilian Portuguese. Furthermore, it is necessary to analyze the interpretations that arise from the sentences obtained through the combination of the different types of verbal predicates analyzed with the modifiers 'junto(s)' and 'sozinho(s)'.