A subset of causal explicative clauses in European Portuguese (EP) introduced by the connectors pois 'for' , que 'that' and porque 'because' has been classified either as coordinate or subordinate clauses, or alternatively as autonomous discursive expressions. Extending previous work, we claim that, although the sentences they head present most of the characteristics of subordination, they establish with the host sentence a paratactic link, and involve secondary and non-restrictive information. We will argue that these explicative clauses arise from parenthetical inclusion via Par-Merge, in the sense of de Vries (2012). This analysis allows us to provide a syntactic account for these clauses, and to capture some of their correlated discursive properties.
Causal explicative clauses headed by the connectors pois, que and porque in Portuguese, despite presenting some properties of subordination establish a paratactic relation with the sentence they are related to. We argue that they are parenthetical clauses that exhibit the properties of specifying coordination.Keywords: explicative clauses, subordination, parataxe, specifying coordination, Portuguese. Palavras-chave: orações explicativas, subordinação, parataxe, coordenação especificante, português. IntroduçãoEm português, as orações iniciadas por pois, que e porque, ilustradas em (1)-(3), têm sido caracterizadas como coordenadas (e.g. Lobo, 2001Lobo, , 2003, como subordinadas (e.g. Bechara, 1999;Matos, 2003Matos, , 2004, como coordenadas e subordinadas, consoante a natureza do enunciado em que ocorrem (Said Ali, 1931;Cunha & Cintra, 1984), ou ainda como unidades discursivas que não são configuráveis no âmbito da gramática da frase e constituem unidades textuais autónomas (Peres & Mascarenhas, 2006;Lopes, 2012).(1) Os alunos regressaram de férias, pois as praias estão quase desertas.(2) A Maria deve estar doente, que ainda não apareceu nas aulas.
Understanding and writing a text arise from several factors. Among them, coreference relations, which allow for the identification of the referents of linguistic expressions, are of particular importance, since they ensure referential cohesion and, thus, contribute to text cohesion. One context in which recognizing referential relations is crucial involves reference chains with anaphoric pronouns. Although all languages exhibit coreference relations, the linguistic means to establish them may vary. Thus, in the context of translation, maintaining reference chains often implies the use of adaptation strategies: when working with non-null subject source languages, such as English, and null subject target languages, such as Portuguese, translators should recognize the contexts in which, in the latter, they may or must omit the subject, without affecting interpretation nor creating vagueness, conflict of interpretations or referential ambiguity. In this work, some data about reference chains in the context of English to Portuguese translation is discussed. We identify the main mismatches in translations done by university students and present clues to help train students in translation, promoting their mastering of the grammatical and textual conditions that determine the omission vs. the realization of the subject. The results show that the main problems result either from calque of the source language properties or from the overgeneralization of null subject contexts in the target language.
In translation contexts, translators must activate two distinct grammars, as well as pragmatic conditions that may also be distinct. This particular case of languages in contact may give rise to inadequacies or errors, sometimes explained as the result of transferring properties of the source language to the target language. Focussing on the results presented in Gonçalves & Colaço (2019), who analysed some issues concerning reference chains in the context of translation, this paper discusses the data under a new perspective. In line with Sorace & Filiaci’s (2006) Interface Hypothesis, we show that in translation, as well as in other situations of languages in contact, linguistic phenomena involving the interface between syntax and other cognitive domains (in particular, semantics and pragmatics) are more affected than phenomena that exempt this interface, which explains why syntactic interference does not operate randomly; we show that this hypothesis is empirically motivated by data involving reference chains in the context of English to Portuguese translation. Plus, we present and discuss data from L1 authentic writing, showing that Portuguese students at the University present similar problems in establishing the adequate reference chains both when they are writing texts in their L1 (Portuguese) and when they are translating from English to their L1 (Portuguese), which leads us to conclude that reference chains are a particular relevant area to confirm the Interface Hypothesis also in L1 contexts.
This paper provides a corpus-based study of agreement in coordinate nominal expressions with only one determiner in European Portuguese. The data presented in our previous work attested the use of these expressions in written discourse, contradicting what is stated in some grammars. A distinction between two constructions is established: (a) those in which the coordinate nominal expression refers only one entity, which are commonly considered acceptable in grammatical descriptions; (b) those in which nouns are used to refer distinct entities, which are often considered anomalous or even ungrammatical. We focus especially on structures involving a singular determiner and two singular nouns and observe the type of agreement triggered by the nominal expression in each case: singular agreement versus plural agreement. Our proposal is based on the idea that these constructions correspond to structures that are distinct from the beginning of syntactic derivation, differing with respect to the coordinated categories (NP versus DP) and the number of determiners selected for the numeration (only one determiner from the beginning versus two determiners in the beginning and post-syntactic deletion of the second determiner), and provides a simple account of internal and external agreement facts.
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