Supleção e localidade nos nominais do português brasileiro: uma abordagem sintática

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the implications that the suppletive occurrences has for the grammar architecture. In general, suppletion can be defined as a type of allomorphy, where allomorphs are maximally phonologically distinct (KATAMBA & STOHAM, 2006, HASPELMATH & SIMS, 2010). More specifically, this paper focuses on data from Brazilian Portuguese that have nominal suppletion triggered by the gender feature, such as boi/vaca (ox/cow), cabra/bode (goat m./goat f.) and carneiro/ovelha (ram/ewe,sheep). The investigation of suppletion is justified by the fact that it has been traditionally interpreted as a peripheral phenomenon in linguistic studies, especially among the generativist orientation approaches, concentring few proposals in this perspective. However, studies on the suppletive occurrences can make major contributions for a better understanding of the architecture of grammar, once the comprehension of this occurrences has the potential to elucidate prominent theoretical issues, among which this paper contemplates: the nature of the Root as a theoretical primitive, the place of the feature of gender in the syntactic structure and locality domains relevant to the licensing of suppletive allomorphy. Therefore, this paper is developed within the theoretical context of Distributed Morphology (HALLE and MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997), since the separation between phonology and semantics, assumed in this model, provides tools for understanding the phenomenon. In general terms, this paper makes the following proposals: (i) the root has no phonological or conceptual content, being individualized through an index (PFAU, 2000, 2009; ACQUAVIVA, 2008); (ii) the suppletion is not chaotic and can be formalized within a domain of structural locality. More specifically for the nominal suppletion data contemplated in this paper, we propose that the local relationship between a root and a nominal categorizing head with an ambivalent gender specification (ARMELIN, 2015) is the syntactic context capable of licensing the suppletion.