AN INVESTIGATION ON THE ROLE OF REFERENTIALITY IN THE INTERPRETATION OF RELATIVE CLAUSES IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
Abstract This paper presents an off-line experiment we conducted to investigate the influence of referentiality on relative clause (RC) interpretation in Brazilian Portuguese. RCs associated with complex NPs seem to be preferentially attached to a referential noun. This referentiality effect can be treated in discourse terms (Gilboy, Sopena, Clifton & Frazier, 1995) or in syntactic-semantic terms (Bezerra, 2017; this paper). Our questionnaire tested these approaches using two types of complex NPs (occupational and kinship NPs) and the results showed that the syntactic-semantic structure of these complex NPs can account for the referentiality effect reported in the literature by Gilboy et al. (1995). Based on our results, we argue in favor of the syntactic-semantic approach and show that the discourse-oriented approach lacks explanatory power.
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
2022
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| Online Access: | http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2175-80262022000100015 |
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| Summary: | Abstract This paper presents an off-line experiment we conducted to investigate the influence of referentiality on relative clause (RC) interpretation in Brazilian Portuguese. RCs associated with complex NPs seem to be preferentially attached to a referential noun. This referentiality effect can be treated in discourse terms (Gilboy, Sopena, Clifton & Frazier, 1995) or in syntactic-semantic terms (Bezerra, 2017; this paper). Our questionnaire tested these approaches using two types of complex NPs (occupational and kinship NPs) and the results showed that the syntactic-semantic structure of these complex NPs can account for the referentiality effect reported in the literature by Gilboy et al. (1995). Based on our results, we argue in favor of the syntactic-semantic approach and show that the discourse-oriented approach lacks explanatory power. |
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