Focalization in situ and the absence of covert focus movement in Brazilian Portuguese

Bibliographic Data

ID9744490
AuthorsRenato Lacerda (0000-0001-9118-4949, 28133 Universidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume37
Issue2
Pages233-261
Publication date2025-09-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueProbus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0921-4771 • E-ISSN: 1613-4079
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/probus-2025-0004
OpenAlexW4408701324
LanguageEN
References cited26

Brazilian Portuguese allows focalization in situ, in the sense that any sub-constituent of the sentence can be focalized in the canonical order, being solely marked in the prosody. The paper addresses the question of whether foci in situ must undergo covert movement to a dedicated focus position, in order to assess the validity of the Focus Criterion in this language. First, it is argued that postverbal focalization is done truly in situ in overt syntax, without involving movement (either overtly or covertly) to a dedicated focus position (FocP) in the periphery of vP. Then, based on phenomena involving negative concord and contrastive topicalization, it is argued that focalization in situ does not involve covert movement to a dedicated focus position (FocP) in the periphery of CP. The paper therefore maintains that the Focus Criterion is not operative in Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese · Covert · Focalization · Linguistics · Narrative · Physics · Portuguese · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation