Abstract
This paper discusses the agreement patterns of passive structures in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). More specifically, we claim that the fact that postverbal DPs in such structures don’t necessarily trigger agreement on the verb and the participial head, whereas moved DPs always do, represents a problem for the Agree model proposed by Chomsky (1998 and subsequent work). We adopt Hornstein’s (2009) model, which eliminates Agree from the grammar, and propose that these postverbal DPs are actually focused in BP. The defective agreement patterns are suggested to be a consequence of the focused status of the DPs.KEYWORDS: Agreement. Focus. Passive Constructions. Postverbal DPs.
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