<div dir="ltr">Dear Christian,<div><br>I have long wondered about this topic, and I remember hearing it in Brazil years ago when I was there. I don’t have any formal articles on the topic, but you might be interested in this page from the curiously documentary textbook we used at Berkeley back in the 90’s, Antônio R.M. Simões’ <i>Com Licença</i>, which is, happily, now available on <a href="http://archive.org">archive.org</a>:<br><br><a href="https://archive.org/details/comlicencabrazil0000simo/page/169/mode/1up">https://archive.org/details/comlicencabrazil0000simo/page/169/mode/1up</a><br> <br>To read it there you’ll need an account, which allows you to check it out for one hour periods.</div><div><br></div><div>But here’s the relevant bit. Simões refers to the phenomenon as “ser intrusivo” — for the benefit of other readers, something like “intrusive copula”. (Parenthesized forms are my own attempts to finish the homework, about thirty years overdue!) </div><br><blockquote>6.4.2 Ser Intrusivo<br><br>Examples:<br><br>Essa menina é é inteligente.<br>Ce né besta, nao, ô cara! Eu vou é por aqui mesmo.<br>Naquele tempo eu gostava era da Ernestina.<br><br>Ser intrusivo, common in spoken Brazilian Portuguese and avoided in the written language, sometimes can be replaced by <i>mesmo</i> or used with <i>mesmo</i> (“<i>é mesmo</i>”) to reinforce an opinion. <br>A full description of how this particular use of <i>ser</i> works in Brazilian Portuguese requires more space and research. In general, <i>ser intrusivo</i> agrees with the preceding verb in its tense, when both verbs are adjacent: “Você é é bobo hein!”; “Eu queria era sair logo dali.” Frequently, the conjunction mas is inserted between both verbs, changing the degree of emphasis sometimes: “Vocé é mas é bobo, hein!” “Eu queria mas era sair logo dali.”<br><br>Exercises<br><br>Try using the <i>ser intrusivo</i> in the following sentences<br><br>1. Voce é daqui dessa cidade. Que nada, che! Eu sou (é) do Rio Grande do Sul.<br>2. O cumpadre pensa que me engana. Ele disse que vai para Piracicaba, mas ele vai (é) para Manhumirim.<br>3. Esse capetinha — mesmo ruim. Está sempre provocando os outros.<br>4. Inteligente nada! Você é (é) burrinho mesmo.<br>5. Naquela época eu andava (era) descalço pela rua.<br><br>Answers to odd numbers: 1. é 3. é 5. era.<br><br></blockquote><div>Best regards,<br>Patrick Hall</div><div><br></div><div>Postdoc, Yale University<br></div><div><a href="https://forum.docling.net">https://forum.docling.net</a><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Mar 12, 2023 at 4:27 PM Christian Lehmann <<a href="mailto:christian.lehmann@uni-erfurt.de">christian.lehmann@uni-erfurt.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Dear colleagues,<br>
</p>
<p>the literature available to me adduces a Caribbean Spanish
example of what I am looking for:</p>
Juan compró fue un libro.<br>
John bought was a book<br>
'A book is what John bought.'
<p>The copula here separates the topical portion of the clause from
the comment portion, including importantly the focus (to which
this portion reduces in the example). Different sources of such a
construction are conceivable, for instance a pseudo-cleft:</p>
Lo que Juan compró fue un libro.<br>
it that John bought was a book<br>
'What John bought was a book.'
<p>What concerns me at the moment, however, is the bare copula in
the function of a focus marker. I am sure I have seen or heard
sentences like the following in Portuguese:</p>
<p>O João comprou foi um livro.<br>
</p>
<p>or with neutralization of tense and, thus, reduction to the
default form of the copula:</p>
<p>O João comprou é um livro.<br>
</p>
<p>However, I cannot seem to find evidence for this, neither primary
data nor linguistic treatments of it. Could you please help me
out? Both references to the linguistic literature and examples,
preferably from Portuguese, but also from any other language (I do
have data from Mandarin!) would be welcome.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance,</p>
<p>Christian<br>
</p>
<div>-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
<table style="font-size:80%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Tel.:</td>
<td>+49/361/2113417</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>E-Post:</td>
<td><a href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de" target="_blank">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Web:</td>
<td><a href="https://www.christianlehmann.eu" target="_blank">https://www.christianlehmann.eu</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Lingtyp mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<a href="https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">Pat</div>