Fwd: Re: Portuguese Subjects and Extraction

[José Cipriano Catarino]

----------  Mensagem Reenviada  ----------
Subject: Re: Portuguese Subjects and Extraction
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 16:31:51 +0100
From: José Cipriano Catarino <jose.catarino at mail.telepac.pt>
To: casillas at stanford.edu


The sentences:
O Pedro, creio que viu o concerto
O Pedro, creio que ele viu o concerto
are, both, well-formed

Except in relative clauses and some interrogative clauses, the gap is usually
filled with a clitic or, if there is a subject extraction, with a personal
pronom:
O gato, o Pedro deu-o ao amigo.
Ao amigo, o Pedro deu-lhe o gato.
O Pedro, penso que escreveu.
O Pedro, penso que ele escreveu.
The co-reference is essencial:
O Pedro crê ter visto o concerto.
* O Pedro, creio ter visto o concerto.
José Catarino, Portugal

> What's "Q&D"?
>
> Anyway, if it helps you any, my Spanish seems to allow them (assuming
> "Juan" below is indeed extracted, and not a topic resumed by a null
> subject pronoun in the lower clause):
>
>   Juan creo      que  vió el  concierto
>   J.   I-believe that saw the concert
>
>  *Juan creo vió el concierto
>
> Given this, my faux-Portuguese judgements ("Hey, it's just Spanish with
> nasal vowels!") would tell me that it's good in Portuguese, though you
> may still want to consult with real Portuguese speakers ;).
>
> Actually, many Brazilian Portuguese varieties have stricter constituent
> order requirements than Spanish; if I recall correctly, I observed
> this in particular with regards to subject placement in main clauses.
> Also, Brazilian dialects drop subject pronouns at a much lower rate
> than Spanish (enough that I've had teachers mildly advise me not to
> drop any!). Thus subjects in Spanish and in Portuguese are indeed
> different, and this is one of those cases that my normally quite-useful
> faux-Portuguese judgements may be called into question ;).

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