On low verbal negation in Brazilian Portuguese

In this paper, I discuss a new construction in Brazilian Portuguese, whereby the negative marker não 'not', which is syncretic with other types of negation in the language, appears in the slot [Aux_V] in periphrases, a position that is not common in other Romance languages. Among its prope...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Cyrino, Sonia|||0000-0003-1333-3851
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:323501
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/323501
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.569
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Negation markers
Brazilian portuguese
Syncretism
Nanosyntax
Syntax/semantics/pragmatics interface
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper, I discuss a new construction in Brazilian Portuguese, whereby the negative marker não 'not', which is syncretic with other types of negation in the language, appears in the slot [Aux_V] in periphrases, a position that is not common in other Romance languages. Among its properties, this type of negation must receive intonational stress, that is, it is a focus element and, as such, it conveys a specific meaning. A comparison with other types of low negation in the same position in Italian, Catalan and French shows that the new negator in Brazilian Portuguese is not the same as the ones that may occur in those languages. Observing this negation marker in relation to low adverbs and to the lexical verb in progressive and perfective periphrases in Brazilian Portuguese, I propose a syntactic position based on the nanosyntax approach, which can explain its focus nature and semantic/pragmatic properties.