The alternation of verbs with motivating argument in BP

a type of factoring argument

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a type of alternation that allows to express the complex constituent, which is originally in the object position, in two different syntactic positions, such as in the sentences: os alunos admiram o brilhantismo do professor [students admire the teacher’s brilliance]/os alunos admiram o professor pelo brilhantismo [students admire the teacher for his brilliance]. For the analysis of this phenomenon, we used the proposal of thematic papers as a cluster of discrete semantic properties of Cançado (2005) and Cançado and Amaral (2016). We propose that the analyzed alternation results from the factoring of the complex verb argument, being determined by semantic restrictions of nominal and verbal level. At the first level, the complex arguments which can be factored must denote a possession relationship, as in the phrase o brilhantismo do professor [the brilliance of the teacher] or the relationship between an eventive name and its agent, such as the nominal phrase a excelente atuação do artista [the excellent performance of the artist] in the alternation o público aplaudiu a excelente atuação do artista [the audience applauded the excellent performance of the artist]/o público aplaudiu o artista por sua excelente atuação [the audience applauded the artist for his excellent performance]. At the verbal level, the verbs that perform this alternation can be grouped into a coarse-grained class (LEVIN, 2010), as they all attribute the semantic properties estativo [estative], objeto de referência [reference object] and objeto motivador [motivating object] to their complex argument, which can be factored. Finally, we propose that the alternation is motivated by pragmatic factors related to the informational structure of the analyzed statements.