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| Author(s): |
João Vinicius de Almeida Braga
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2015-07-16 |
| Examining board members: |
Marcello Modesto dos Santos;
Maximiliano Guimarães Miranda;
Esmeralda Vailati Negrão;
Raquel Santana Santos;
Maria Cristina Figueiredo Silva
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| Advisor: | Marcello Modesto dos Santos |
| Abstract | |
This study is about different topic constructions and their darivations. This differentiation was established by Frascarreli & Hinterhölzl (2007) based on the approach developed by Rizzi (1997), which proposes a more articulated CP structure. So Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl (2007) conducted corpora syrvey and unveal three types of topics in the Italian and German: a) shifting topic (aboutness topic): information that is the subject of the sentence, relativaly (Reinhart, 1981); b) contrastive topic: a phrase that creates a opposition to another pharse (Chafe, 1987) c) familiar topic: a given or accessable constituint (PESETSKY, 1987). To give an ideato this problem, please, consider the examples, below: 1) JOHN (* he) reads the syntax book (not Peter). Contrastive focus 2) The syntax book, John read ø / it yesterday. Topic 3) John, he read the syntax book. Topic 4) John ø syntax read the book yesterday. Topic These sentences ar all fine in BP. Sentence (1) can not have the strong pronoun. Sentence (2) is accetable in both forms either with a strong pronoun or wth the empity category. Sentence (3) is accetable because John is based generated at spell out. Sentence (4) is ambiguous bettween movment or base generation. The authors evaluate the intonation of each one of the structures like (2, 3 and 4) and propose that: they are all based generated leaving the derivation via movment to express focus, sentence (1). Based on this work, we carried out a comparative study of the topic structures in BP. Analizing sentences like (2-4) we stabilishs the intonational contour of them and look for a better treatment for such syntactic structures: derivation via movement, or base generation. In the very first chapter we present the problem and the architecture of the phonetic articulation, the autossegmental and metric phonology and prosodic structure that will guide this study. Then, some previous studies in this area are show wtih the descriptions of the PB neutral sentences and sentences with prosodic focus on the subject, and, also, sentences with already raised topics in the recent past. In the second chapter, we will present the syntactic theory that supports our understanding of the structures involved here and the type of analisys envolved. The generative theory formulated by Chomsky will serve as base line, especially from the Minimalist Program (COMSKY 1995 and laters). After this introduction, we will present some findings on this set of sentences and two possible paths to follow. In the third chapter we describe the experiment, in the fourth we present and discuss the results. Finally, the fifth and final chapter offers an overview of the foregoing and the conclusions. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 11/08952-5 - Genericity and Prosody: an interface study |
| Grantee: | João Vinicius de Almeida Braga |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |