On Brazilian Portuguese 3rd person object full pronouns

Abstract

It has been observed that certain overt 3rd person object pronouns, such as ‘it’ in paycheck sentences, propositional clitics in Portuguese and English, 3rd person non-propositional clitics in Catalan, Spanish, Slovenian and Serbian/Croatian may allow sloppy readings. Additionally, it is well-known that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has lost 3rd person object clitics, which were replaced either by [-animate] null objects or by [± animate] full pronouns. The latter, differently from personal 3rd person clitics in certain languages, do not allow strict/sloppy readings, regardless of their animacy feature specification. Nevertheless, animacy is relevant for the use of 3rd person object full pronouns in BP since only the [+animate] ones can be focused. I propose that the BP does not fit in the tripartite division of pronouns into ‘strong/weak/clitic’. I assume that full pronouns in Romance underwent a reanalysis from demonstratives, and that BP full pronouns have a structure that precludes them from licensing strict/sloppy readings. As for the animacy distinction in focalization contexts, I assume that [+animate] full pronouns in BP are specified for [Person] and must move out of VP to check that feature. Thus, they escape the relevant vP phase and become available for checking [focus] by a low Focus head.