A Romance language principally spoken in Portugal and Brazil.
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Resources/papers on Portuguese nominal syntax and determiners?
I'm vaguely aware that the (definite) determiner has a much freer distribution in Portuguese than in other languages, e.g. it can come before personal names:
A Maria lê um livro.
The Maria ...
7
votes
1answer
233 views
Where did the nasal sound in the Portuguese word “sim” come from?
Among the descendants of the Latin word sic ("thus, so, or just like that"), only the Portuguese word sim ends with a nasal consonant. Actually, in modern Portuguese, it ends with a nasal vowel, [sĩ], ...
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1answer
269 views
How many morphological cases does Portuguese have?
In WALS (World Atlas of Language Structures), "Number of Cases" is listed for most languages. However, this information is absent for Portuguese.
Does Portuguese have any morphological case marking? ...
4
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1answer
135 views
How did the Portuguese pronoun “se” take on these other functions?
In Portuguese, the third person accusative pronoun se ("himself/herself/itself/themselves") can be used for four different purposes:
1.) Most straightforwardly, as a reflexive pronoun:
Mantém-se ...
8
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3answers
440 views
Why does Spanish have so many diphthongs compared to other Romance languages?
I have studied and known Spanish my whole life, and got a job at a University where I am allowed to take some free classes. Over the past three years, I have taken all the Italian classes offered, all ...
5
votes
3answers
380 views
Why the infinitive in Portuguese “Cartago tem que ser destruída”?
Cartago tem que ser destruída.
"Carthage must be destroyed." I'm wondering about the infinitive (ser): where does it come from? In what situations is the infinitive used after que: only with ter ...
4
votes
2answers
284 views
Verb-attraction parameter in Portuguese
Prof. John McWorther, in his course on Linguistics, said, in a lecture about principles and parameters: "if a language is pro-drop, the verb attraction parameter is always set on. If a language isn't ...
