A nominalização em uma perspectiva sintática: estatuto categorial e estrutura funcional do infinitivo nominal no português brasileiro

Abstract

This research is part of the studies that investigate the interface between morphology and syntax, taking as an empirical object the nominalization of infinitive forms in Brazilian Portuguese, henceforth PB, as in cantar – o cantar. In general, infinitive nominals are inserted in the scope of the word formation process known as Morphological Conversion, which is defined as the use of the same linguistic form in different categories without any morphological change (KEHDI, 1981; CUNHA and CINTRA, 1985; DON, 1993; BAUER and VARELA, 2005). When re-discussing the weaknesses of lexicalist proposals (BASÍLIO, 1982; FLORES, 2013; LIEBER, 2005; VILLALVA, 2013) for the phenomenon of Morphological Conversion, we propose that the existence of a linguistic phenomenon of this nature is, in fact, a strong evidence that the category may be better understood as a result of the organization of morphemes within the word and the syntactic environment itself in which this formation is found (cf. SOUZA and ARMELIN, 2018). In this sense, we assume as a theoretical background a syntactic perspective of word formation, such as the one developed along the lines of the Distributed Morphology framework (HALLE and MARANTZ 1993; MARANTZ, 1997 and many subsequent works), henceforth MD, which proposes that words, phrases and sentences are built on the same grammar component, the syntax. The assumptions proposed in the scope of the MD approach are appropriate for the analysis of nominal infinitives, since the traditional lexical categories, such as verb and noun, for example, do not have primitive status within this theoretical model, being merely a consequence of the structural relations that are established around an acategorial root. Thus, we propose, in this work, that the properties of the nominal infinitive in BP may be explained through the combination of the different functional heads present in its syntactic structure. The basic question for this research is, then, to specify these heads and the hierarchical sequence in which they are organized in the syntax. For this, we describe the empirical properties of the nominal infinitives of PB and propose that they function as the Complex Event Nominals, in the typology of Grimshaw (1990). Based on this behavior, we argue in favor of the existence of three verbal heads in the constitution of the nominal infinitive in PB, namely, (i) the categorizer v, responsible for the verbal category of the base, for the event reading and for introducing the internal argument; (ii) the Voice head (KRATZER, 1996), responsible for the introduction of the external argument and (iii) the Aspect head, which hosts the infinitive morphology. This functional sequence, however, is below nominal structure, namely, the categorizer n and D, responsible for the nominal properties of the formation. This syntactic structure is able of encompassing the empirical properties of the nominal infinitive, revealing a strong interaction between morphology and syntax, since the arguments present in the structure are inserted before the nominal form is actually formed in the syntax. Finally, if this analysis is on the right track, then the nominal infinitives in BP constitute important evidence (against GRIMSHAW, 1990; ALEXIADOU, 2001) that zero nominalizations may have obligatory argument structure.