Edited by Jairo Nunes
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 142] 2009
► pp. 51–68
In this paper we examine null possessor constructions in Brazilian Portuguese, which display an anaphoric behavior in some contexts but a pronominal behavior in others. We show that in absence of islands separating a null possessor from its antecedent, null possessors display properties of obligatory control and, following Hornstein (2001), we analyze these instances of null possessors as traces of movement to θ-positions. Assuming with Hornstein (2001, 2007) that movement is derivationally more economical than pronominalization, we then argue that null possessors exhibit a pronominal behavior only when they sit in a position from which a licit A-movement operation cannot be launched.
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