Concordância negativa em português e a sue evolução

Vol.31,No.2(2010)

Metoděj Polášek

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/114872

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Abstract
The Sentential negation, and the negative concord in particular, is a complex phenomenon which is far from being diachronically invariable. We could observe on the example of Portuguese that the main reason for the diachronic variation in the field of negation is the changing semantical status of the sentential negative marker não, according to the theory developed by Zeijlstra and Penka. The non-strict negative concord language as it is now has developed from Archaic Portuguese which could be considered as a strict NC language. The negative marker was originally required to accompany the semantically negated verb at any time, even in the co-occurrence with pre-verbal n-words. The negative marker was semantically non-negative which means that it had to participate, together with the remaining negative elements in the sentence, in a feature checking relation with an abstract negative operator, free of phonological content. Later on, in the contemporary standard Portuguese, the negative marker adopted the function of semantically negative operator against which other negative elements in the sentence need to be checked. Where the negative marker couldn't license the n-words due to syntactical constraints it was not desirable, for the economy reasons, to appear anymore and was simply replaced by the abstract negative operator. The admitting of new structures of sentential negation in the contemporary colloquial Brazilian Portuguese is a proof that the system of sentential negation in Portuguese tends to evolve further in the common direction described by Jespersen. The Contemporary Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese is without doubts still a non-strict NC language which makes use of the negation marker não in a different way than it is common in the Standard Portuguese: it places it in the sentence final position to give a negative interpretation to the content of the sentence and to emphasize it at the same time.

Keywords:
sentential negation; standard Portuguese; archaic Portuguese; colloquial Brazilian Portuguese; syntax; negative concord; evolution; interpretation; indefinites

Pages:
193–207
References

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