This dissertation explores, within the general framework of Distributed Morphology, the licensing conditions of empty nouns in Persian, a Western Iranian language, and the issues that arise within this context for the distribution of plural marking and the insertion of the Ezafe vowel. With respect to the licensing of the empty noun, the proposal made in this thesis is along the lines of those that link ellipsis to information structure (e.g. Rooth 1992a, 1992b; Gengel 2007, among others). It is suggested that the Empty Noun Construction (ENC) is derived through the interaction between the following two information-structural features: (i) the E(llipsis)-feature, which ensures that the head noun is identical with its counterpart in the antecedent and specifies the head noun for non-pronunciation; (ii) the F(ocus)-feature, which specifies the remnant modifier as an element which is in some kind of contrastive relationship with its corresponding element in the antecedent. The interaction between these two features is implemented in the syntax in a phase-based derivation. Plural marking and Ezafe insertion in the ENC are accounted for within an articulated derivational model of PF (Embick & Noyer 2001; Embick 2003 et seq.; Pak 2008). It is proposed that the displacement of the plural marker in the ENC is motivated by the non-pronunciation of the head noun and is handled early in the PF derivation by Local Dislocation operation. Adopting Pak's (2008) model of syntax-phonology interface, the rule responsible for the insertion of the Ezafe linker -e is argued to be a phonological rule that applies at the Late-Linearization stage to connect [+N] heads to their following modifiers/complements.

This dissertation explores, within the general framework of Distributed Morphology, the licensing conditions of empty nouns in Persian, a Western Iranian language, and the issues that arise within this context for the distribution of plural marking and the insertion of the Ezafe vowel. With respect to the licensing of the empty noun, the proposal made in this thesis is along the lines of those that link ellipsis to information structure (e.g. Rooth 1992a, 1992b; Gengel 2007, among others). It is suggested that the Empty Noun Construction (ENC) is derived through the interaction between the following two information-structural features: (i) the E(llipsis)-feature, which ensures that the head noun is identical with its counterpart in the antecedent and specifies the head noun for non-pronunciation; (ii) the F(ocus)-feature, which specifies the remnant modifier as an element which is in some kind of contrastive relationship with its corresponding element in the antecedent. The interaction between these two features is implemented in the syntax in a phase-based derivation. Plural marking and Ezafe insertion in the ENC are accounted for within an articulated derivational model of PF (Embick & Noyer 2001; Embick 2003 et seq.; Pak 2008). It is proposed that the displacement of the plural marker in the ENC is motivated by the non-pronunciation of the head noun and is handled early in the PF derivation by Local Dislocation operation. Adopting Pak's (2008) model of syntax-phonology interface, the rule responsible for the insertion of the Ezafe linker -e is argued to be a phonological rule that applies at the Late-Linearization stage to connect [+N] heads to their following modifiers/complements.

Abstract: This dissertation investigates the syntax and also some aspects of the morphology of Tharifith Berber (such as, the inflectional classes of nouns and the Construct State) within the Distributed Morphology framework (Halle & Marantz 1993, et al.). One of its main objectives is to demonstrate how morphology could be brought within the range of syntax. This view becomes apparent when inflectional morphemes which project in the syntax are also used to derive words. Contrary to what has always been reported, that Berber is an unquestionable VSO language, I show that Tharifith has now shifted to a Topic-Initial configurational system. This claim is based on two pieces of evidence: (1) the SVO order is preferred over VSO, (2) when the object is a clitic both the verb and the clitic are required to be in the initial position of the clause. I propose an account arguing that the two alternations instantiate a Topic-fronting phenomenon, which requires the initial position of the clause to be filled with Topic. Of interest to word order is another property displayed by some WH- complex clauses which require Verb-First. A careful analysis of the structure of these clauses reveals that this is an instantiation of V-to-C movement, also known as the verb second phenomenon (V2). While the movement to the initial position in the main clause is argued to be motivated by Topic, I show that V2 is motivated by the feature Focus which needs to be checked in C. Due to the fact that this operation is sensitive to the phonological property of the complementiser, I make the claim that discourse features, at least in Berber, should be generated at PF. Despite the fact that the subject, object and dative clitics are often grouped under the ‘clitic – banner,’ I show that the first set displays the properties of agreement markers on the verb while the other two sets are claimed to be argument XPs. The approach takes an in-depth theoretical approach to the study of clitics. In a framework where syntax operates on purely formal features, and taking on board the view that clitics as arguments have the formal features required by the computation identical to the ones found with lexical NPs, it is argued that any other distinction between the two sets of arguments is made post-syntactically. Argument structure is then claimed to follow from a fairly small number of principles which govern their syntactic system. The study discusses the movement of clitics at length, and argues it to be phonological. Crucial to the analysis is the fact that this movement operation is not only dependent on the phonological property of clitics but is also dependent on the property of functional elements that host them. Evidence is provided which shows that only functional categories that are phonologically dependent can be hosts. I then conclude that cliticisation is in fact an attraction by the host, a process which occurs during the mapping of the syntactic output to phonology. I further argue that this type of PF merger which is claimed to generate the placement of clitics is constrained by an adjacency relation. Additional support to the claim that morphology should be subject to syntactic principles is found with valency. I show that the system, in many respects, treats the structure of verbs and clauses along the same line. Furthermore, the meaning which is traditionally claimed to be inherent to words is shown from the verbal system to follow from the syntactic structure the verbs project.

This thesis investigates the syntactic structure of determiner phrases (DP) and their distribution in pre- and postverbal subject positions in Standard Arabic (SA) and Saudi dialects (SUD). It argues that indefinite DPs cannot occupy preverbal subject positions unless they are licensed by modification. Working within the theory of syntactic visibility conditions (visibility of the specifier and/or the determiner) put forth by Giusti (2002) and Landau (2007), I propose that adjectives, diminutives or construct states (CS) together with nunation can license indefinite DPs in preverbal subject positions. The syntactic derivation of the licensed indefinite DP depends on its complexity. In other words, in the case of simple DPs (e.g., a noun followed by an adjective), the correct linear word order is achieved by the syntactic N-to-D movement which takes place in the syntax proper. By contrast, if the DP is complex as in diminutives or CSs, the narrow syntax may not be able to derive the correct linear order. Therefore, I propose a novel analysis that accounts for the mismatches between the spell out of the syntax and the phonological form. I argue that the derivation of diminutives and CSs is a shared process between the narrow syntax and the phonological component (PF). I show that movement operations after-syntax (Lowering and Local-dislocation) proposed by Embick and Noyer (1999, 2001, 2007), in the sense of Distributed Morphology (DM), can account for the mismatch. The last theoretical chapter of the thesis investigates the linguistic status of nunation. I argue that nunation is an indefinite marker that performs half of determination with a full lexical item satisfying the other half. As far as the subject position is concerned, the current thesis includes two experimental studies that investigate processing of syntactic subjects in different word orders (SVO/VSO) by two groups: Native speakers (NSs) and Heritage speakers (HSs) of Arabic whose dominant language is English. The first study aims to answer two questions: a) which word order is more preferred by NSs, SVO or VSO? and b) which word order requires more processing? The second study aims to answer the same questions but with different participants, HSs. It also aims to check whether or not the dominant language grammar affected the heritage language grammar. Results showed that VSO is more preferred than SVO by both groups. As far as processing is concerned, NSs significantly processed subjects in VSO faster the SVO; they showed no significant difference when processing postverbal subjects in definite and indefinite VSO. By contrast, HSs processed subjects in SVO faster than VSO; however, the difference was not significant. The slow processing of VSO shown by HSs might be attributed to the effect of the dominant language which has a different word order from the heritage language.

Orientador: Jairo Morais Nunes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-03T14:56:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Zocca_CynthiaLevart_M.pdf: 3976728 bytes, checksum: e53a16b486d8d1b98c90d5c05d8a1f25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / Resumo: Esta dissertação trata da relação entre sintaxe e morfologia que pode ser observada através de sentenças contendo elipses. A análise proposta tem como base o arcabouço teórico do Programa Minimalista de Chomsky (1995, 1999, 2000) e a Morfologia Distribuída de Halle e Marantz (1993). A principal questão levantada diz respeito à necessidade de identidade entre o elemento elidido e seu antecedente. Em primeiro lugar faço a distinção entre dois processos anafóricos descritos por Hankamer e Sag (1976): anáforas profundas, que não têm conteúdo sintático, e anáforas superficiais, que têm conteúdo sintático. Aponto que um dos critérios para identificar anáforas superficiais, identidade estrita entre o antecedente e a elipse, nem sempre parece se aplicar. Mostro que a falta de identidade entre o antecedente e a elipse é apenas aparente, pois existe um ponto da derivação sintática em que são idênticos, sendo que nos dois locais o que existe é um radical e afixos de Caso, tempo ou concordância. Tais afixos são valorados através da operação Agree de Chomsky (1999,2000). Dentro do Programa Minimalista, existem duas formas de eliminar traços não-interpretáveis: através do movimento coberto de traços, Move F (Chomsky 1995) ou de concordância local sem movimento, Agree (Chomsky 1999, 2000). Mostro que os dados de elipse apresentados favorecem uma análise através de Agree. Além disso os dados também favorecem uma abordagem para a derivação de elipses que se vale de apagamento em PF, e não reconstrução em LF. Por fim, analiso casos de elipses envolvendo expressões inerentemente negativas ou positivas e os verbos ser e estar, que parecem ser contra-exemplos para a análise com Agree e apagamento em PF proposta. Mostro, no entanto, que tais casos podem ser explicados dentro da análise proposta considerando-se que se tratam de elementos inerentemente especificados / Abstract: This thesis deals with the relationship between syntax and morphology that can be established from sentences containing ellipsis. The proposed analysis is based on the theoretical background of Chomsky's (1995, 1999, 2000) Minimalist Program and the Distributed Morphology of Halle and Marantz (1993). The main issue raised concerns the necessity of identity between the elided element and its antecedent. First of ali I distinguish between two anaphoric processes described by Hankamer and Sag (1976): deep anaphora, which has no syntactic content, and surface anaphora, which has syntactic content. I point out that one criterion used to identify surface anaphora, i.e. strict identity between the antecedent and the ellipsis, does not always apply. I argue that the lack of identity between the antecedent and the ellipsis is just apparent, for there is a point in the syntactic derivation in which both sites are actually filled with a root plus Case, tense or agreement affixes. Such affixes enter the derivation unvalued and have their values set under the operation Agree Chomsky (1999, 2000). In the Minimalist Program, there are two ways of checking and eliminating uninterpretable features: through covert feature movement, Move F (Chomsky 1995) or local agreement with no movement, through the operation Agree (Chomsky 1999, 2000). I show that the ellipsis data presented favor an analysis using Agree. Furthermore, the data also favor an approach for the derivation of ellipsis using PF deletion instead of LF reconstruction. Finally, I analyze cases of ellipsis involving inherently negative or positive expressions and the verb be, which seem to be counter-examples to the Agree - PF deletion analysis. I show, however, that these cases can be explained under the proposed analysis, taking into account that these elements are inherently specified. / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é refletir sobre como é construída a relação entre definitude e Caso no hebraico por meio da análise do Construct State e do fenômeno da Marcação Diferencial de Objeto. Dessa forma, pretendemos com essa pesquisa suscitar reflexões sobre o fenômeno da Definitude Espraiada, sobre a Teoria do Caso, sobre a formação do Construct State e dos compounds na sintaxe e sobre a semântica do et. Utilizamos para a análise dos dados o arcabouço teórico da Morfologia Distribuída (Cf. HALLE; MARANTZ (1993), HALLE (1997) e MARANTZ (1997)), além das últimas observações feitas acerca do Programa Minimalista (Cf. CHOMSKY (1998, 2001)), ambos desenvolvimentos recentes da Teoria Gerativa. Assim sendo, de modo diferente de outras análises do Construct State, que não levam em consideração os compostos, nossa análise proporciona uma explicação para a formação, tanto do Construct State, quanto dos compounds, na sintaxe, focalizando a estrutura de cada uma dessas construções: o primeiro possuindo uma estrutura composta de duas raízes abstratas e o segundo constituído apenas por uma raiz. A estrutura dos compounds procura refletir a não composicionalidade entre os dois nomes que o formam. Já a estrutura do Construct State privilegia a composicionalidade dos membros do construto, a Definitude Espraiada e a não modificação direta do núcleo. Enfim, sugerimos que a relação entre Caso e definitude no hebraico seja uma relação formal e dependente. Formal, porque ela se expressa por meio dos traços dos nominais que devem ser valorados, checados, mantidos para a inserção de conteúdo fonológico e, até mesmo, inseridos tardiamente pelo Componente Morfológico. Dependente, porque sem a definitude, Caso não pode ser checado. / The main aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between definiteness and Case in Hebrew. This will be done by analyzing the Construct State and the phenomenon of Differential Object Marking. By doing so, we intend to shed some light on the phenomenon of Definiteness Spreading, on the Case Theory, on the Construct State and syntactic compounds and on the semantics of ´et. In order to analyze the data, we worked within the framework of Distributed Morphology (Cf. HALLE; MARANTZ (1993), HALLE (1997) e MARANTZ (1997)), considering, as well, the Minimalist Program (Cf. CHOMSKY (1998, 2001)), both of them, recent developments of Generative Theory. Due to this fact - and differently from other Construct State analysis that dont take the compounds into consideration our analysis provides an explanation for the formation of both the Construct State and the syntactic compounds. This is achieved by focusing on the structure of these constructions: the former is a structure derived from two abstract roots, and the later is formed by a single root. The structure of the compounds aims at reflecting the non-compositional interpretation, which is typical in these cases. The Construct State structure, on the other hand, emphasizes the compositionality in its interpretation, the Definiteness Spreading and the non-direct modification of the head. In other words, we suggest that the relationship between Case and definiteness in Hebrew is a formal and dependent one. It is formal because it is expressed by the features of the nominal that must be valued, checked, maintained for proper insertion of phonological content, and late-inserted by the Morphological Component; and it is dependent because Case cannot be checked without definiteness.

O propósito deste estudo é descrever e analisar o comportamento de sentenças médias no português do Brasil (PB), tais como Dissertação de mestrado não se escreve fácil e Cachecol tricota rápido. Muito têm-se discutido a respeito das construções médias, em diversas línguas, visto que elas agregam em si uma complexa relação entre a sintaxe, a semântica e, para alguns, o léxico. Foi a extensa bibliografia e a sempre presente discordância entre autores a respeito dessas construções que despertou nosso interesse em trabalhar com esse tema. Entretanto, descrever as construções médias do português Brasileiro revelou-se uma tarefa das mais árduas. Explica-se: há dois fatores de grande importância para a descrição dessas sentenças que estão em aparente mudança nesse idioma. O primeiro desses fenômenos é a mudança no uso dos clíticos que, de modo geral, está diminuindo em nossa língua (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000). O segundo fenômeno é o fato de o português do Brasil estar passando por um processo generalizado de mudança na classe dos verbos de alternância transitiva, já apontado na literatura (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Negrão (2006)). Tendo como perspectiva teórica a Morfologia Distribuída, um dos recentes desenvolvimentos da Gramática Gerativa, acreditamos poder dar um tratamento unicamente sintático, mais enxuto e uniforme do que as propostas de análise até hoje sugeridas. Fundamentando-nos no trabalho de Marantz (1997), no qual o autor propõe que uma interpretação agentiva de um determinado sintagma pode ser devida, não somente à presença de um núcleo verbal, mas também a informações sintático-semânticas da própria raiz participante da construção. além de baseando-nos na combinação das características sintático-semânticas das raízes envolvidas na construção. Também, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou e Schäfer (2005) hipotetizam, seguindo Kratzer (2002), em favor de decompor os verbos alternantes em uma raiz, um núcleo de causa e um núcleo de voz. Os dados do PB, vistos pela perspectiva da Morfologia Distribuída, nos permitirão ir adiante nas pesquisas sobre o tema específico que desenvolveremos neste trabalho e, ao mesmo tempo, trarão novas evidências e questionamentos a respeito da teoria que apóia este projeto / The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the Middle Construction in Brazilian Portuguese, such as Dissertação de mestrado não escreve fácil and Cachecol tricota rápido. Linguists, working with data form several languages, have discussed extensively about these constructions, because they aggregate in them a complex relationship between syntax, semantics and, in some analysis, the lexicon. It was the comprehensive bibliography and the presence of great discrepancy between authors - about these constructions that awakened our interest in working with this theme. However, describing these constructions in Brazilian Portuguese proved to be one of the most arduous task, since there are two factors of great importance to the description of those sentences that are in apparent change in our language. The first of these phenomena is the change in the use of clitics, which, in general, is decreasing in Brazilian Portuguese (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000)). The second phenomenon is the fact that this language is going through a process of widespread change in the class of alternating transitive verbs, already identified in the literature (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Pollini (2006)). Having as theoretical framework a theory of the architecture of grammar known as Distributed Morphology, one of the recent developments of Generative Grammar (Chomsky, 1960, 1965), we believe we can offer a syntactic treatment, more economical and more uniform than the proposals of analysis suggested so far. Our analysis is fundamented in the proposal from Marantz (1997), who argues that an agentive interpretation for a given phrase may be due, not only to the syntactic presence of a verbal head, but also to the presence of relevant syntactic-semantic features of the root. Also, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2005) hypothesizes, along with Kratzer (2000), in favor of decomposing verbal meaning in a root, a causation head and a Voice head. The data coming from Brazilian Portuguese middle constructions, seen by the perspective of Distributed Morphology, can help the research on this specific topic to develop and, at the same time, bring new evidence and questioning about the theory that supports this project

O objetivo geral desta dissertação é fornecer um quadro amplo da formação dos compostos nas línguas naturais, deflagrando o que deve ser visto como universal em sua formação e o que deve ser visto como particular às línguas. Partindo de uma língua específica, o português brasileiro, demonstramos como a composição se estabelece em um sistema particular, e, no contraste entre as propriedades de seus dados e as propriedades atestadas nesse processo em trabalhos taxonômicos e tipológicos, delineamos as fronteiras entre o geral e o específico. Admitimos que sejam duas as propriedades universais da composição que devem ser abarcadas em um sistema gerativo: (i) o estabelecimento de uma relação gramatical entre os membros de um composto, a saber, uma relação de subordinação, atribuição ou coordenação fato bem comprovado translinguisticamente nos trabalhos de Bisetto e Scalise (2005), Guevara e Scalise (2009), e Scalise e Bisetto (2009) , e (ii) a criação de um domínio categorial acima de dois núcleos complexos conectados em determinada relação gramatical, o qual garante que uma estrutura complexa quase-sentencial seja interpretada como uma única unidade sintática. O particular nesse processo de formação de palavras reside no modo como as línguas naturais emolduram morfologicamente seus compostos, ou se a partir de uma combinação entre radicais, ou se a partir de uma combinação entre palavras, bem como os processos fonológicos que determinam a composição em um sistema linguístico específico. Essa assunção é evidenciada pela variedade de estruturas morfológicas encontrada nos compostos translinguisticamente, e pela assistematicidade de processos fonológicos que se aplicam nos compostos a fim de demarcá-los em uma língua. Para explicar esses fatos, assumimos um modelo não-lexicalista de gramática, a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; EMBICK; NOYER, 2007), e, com base nesse aparato teórico, demonstramos que as propriedades universais da composição são diretamente abarcadas no componente sintático. As relações gramaticais, primeiramente, são formalizadas através dos tipos de aplicação da operação Merge, tal como definidos em Chomsky (2000, 2004), nomeadamente, set-Merge e pair-Merge, enquanto que o domínio categorial é formado a partir da concatenação de um núcleo definidor de categoria acima de duas ou mais raízes categorizadas. As estruturas morfológicas, por sua vez, serão emolduradas pós-sintaticamente, nos componentes morfológico e fonológico da gramática, onde a variação translinguística se processa. Para tanto, argumentamos que a informação de classe carrega um papel importante na variação estrutural dos compostos translinguisticamente, pois será a presença ou ausência dessa informação que determinará quando uma raiz sintática será um radical ou uma palavra, distribuindo, desse modo, as estruturas sintáticas dos compostos em combinações morfológicas variadas / The main goal of this thesis is to provide a broad picture of compounding in natural languages, triggering what should be considered universal and what should be considered languagespecific in this word formation process. Starting from a particular language, Brazilian Portuguese, we demonstrate how compounding is established in a linguistic system, and by the contrast of the properties present in its compounds with the attested properties provided in taxonomic and typological works on the subject, we outline the boundaries between what is general and what is specific to this language. We argue that there are two universal properties of compounding that should be accounted for a generative system: (i) the establishment of a grammatical relation between the constituents of a compound, namely subordination, attribution and coordination a crosslinguistically well-proven fact in the works of Bisetto and Scalise (2005), Guevara and Scalise (2009) and Scalise and Bisetto (2009) and (ii) the formation of a categorial domain above two constituents connected in a specific grammatical relation, which ensures that a quasi-sentential structure will be interpreted as a single syntactic unit. What is language-specific in this word formation process lies in how languages frame their compounds in morphological structures, whether in a combination of stems or in a combination of words, as well as the phonological processes that specify compounding in some linguistic systems. This assumption finds evidence in the variety of morphological structures found in compounds through the languages of the world, and in the unsystematicity of phonological processes that apply to compounds to demarcate it in a particular language. In order to explain all the above-mentioned facts, we assume a non-lexicalist approach to grammar, the Distributed Morphology framework (see HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; EMBICK; NOYER, 2007), and based on its tenets we demonstrate that the universal properties of compounding are straightforwardly accounted for the syntactic component of the grammar. Primarily, the grammatical relations are formalized through the nature of the operation Merge, as defined in Chomsky (2000, 2004), namely, set-Merge and pair-Merge, while the categorial domain is created by the concatenation of a category-defining head above two or more categorized roots. The morphological structures of the compounds will be framed post-syntactically at the morphological and phonological components, where crosslinguistic variation takes place. To this end, we argue that class marker information plays an important role in the variation of compounds morphological structure crosslinguistically, since it will be the absence or the presence of this feature that will define whether a syntactic root will be externalized as a stem or as a word, distributing this way the syntactic structure of a compound in various morphological combinations

O objetivo maior deste trabalho é argumentar em favor de que a informação sobre a estrutura argumental das nominalizações está codificada em núcleos funcionais, os quais podem possuir sabores diferentes, isto é, propriedades diversas como causatividade, eventividade, reflexividade etc., em vez de tal informação estar codificada nas raízes abstratas como assumem autores como: Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), entre outros. O objetivo específico deste trabalho, por sua vez, é analisar como é formado um grupo de padrões do hebraico, o qual forma nomes de ações (cf. GLINERT, 1989), e mostrar que nem todas as nominalizações são formadas por uma camada verbal, contra Hazout (1995) e Shlonsky (2004). Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico do presente trabalho a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), uma teoria não-lexicalista, a qual propõe que tanto palavras, quanto sentenças são formadas pelas mesmas operações durante a derivação sintática. De modo especial, utilizamos a noção de fase dentro de palavras (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003), para explicar que alguns nominais possuem padrões vocálicos que não são atômicos (contra ARAD, 2005), mas são formados em duas fases: uma fase verbal e outra nominal, enquanto outros nominais são formados em apenas uma fase: a nominal. Em nossa análise, privilegiamos quatro padrões vocálicos formadores de nominais de ação: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, de modo que encontramos restrições diferentes para cada um dos padrões. Tais restrições dizem respeito a: (i) modificação por adjetivos e advérbios; (ii) possibilidade de alçamento dentro de DPs; (iii) obrigatoriedade de interpretação de um argumento agente e (iv) obrigatoriedade de interpretação reflexiva. Além disso, analisamos os possíveis contextos sintáticos em que são encontrados esse nominais, isto é, analisamos quais são as possibilidades de interação desses nominais com o Construct State, o Free State, a Marca Diferencial de Objeto et e com a presença de uma by phrase. Como resultado da análise, defendemos que o padrão CCiCa seja um padrão formado por apenas uma fase nominal, o que explica a sua impossibilidade de modificação por advérbios genuínos, isto é, advérbios que possuem uma morfologia típica de advérbio. Por sua vez, o padrão CiCuC é formado por duas fases: uma fase verbal, que aceita a modificação por advérbios genuínos; e uma fase nominal, que permite a modificação por adjetivos. Já o padrão haCCaCa foi analisado como formado por apenas uma fase nominal, tanto por causa da sua morfologia, que não apresenta resquícios de uma morfologia verbal, quanto pela sua semântica obrigatoriamente agentiva, que o diferencia do padrão verbal ao qual ele está relacionado. Por fim, consideramos que o padrão hitCCaCut é formado por duas fases, o que está de acordo com a presença de uma morfologia verbal que compõe o padrão e com o tipo de argumento interno que é licenciado. / The main goal of this work is to argue that information over argument structure of nominalizations is coded in functional heads, which can have distinct flavors, that is, distinct properties, such as causativity, eventivity, reflexivity, etc., instead of that information being coded in the abstract roots, as assumed by Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), among others. The specific object of this work, on the other hand, is to analyze how a certain group of patterns that generates action nouns in Hebrew is formed, and to show that not all nominalizations are formed by a verbal layer, contra Hazout (1995) and Shlonsky (2004). We use, in this work, the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), a non-lexicalist theory which claims that both words and sentences are formed by the same operations, within the syntactic derivation. In a special way, we use the notion of phases within words (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003) in order to explain that some nouns possess vocal patterns that are not atomic (contra ARAD, 2005), but are formed in two separate phases: a verbal one, and a nominal one, while other nouns are formed only by the nominal phase. In our analysis, we privilege four noun formation vocal patterns: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, each one of them bearing a distinct set of restrictions. Such restrictions concern: (i) modification by adjectives and adverbs; (ii) possibility of raising within DPs; (iii) mandatory interpretation of an agentive argument and (iv) mandatory reflexive interpretation. Furthermore, we analyzed the possible syntactic contexts in which these nouns are found, that is, we analyzed which are the possibilities of interaction between these nouns and the Construct State, the Free State, the Differential Object Marker et a the presence of a by phrase. As a result of the analysis, we defend that the pattern CCiCa is formed by only a nominal phase, which explains its impossibility of being modified by genuine adverbs, that is, adverbs that possess adverbial morphology. On the other hand, the pattern CiCuC is formed by two phases: a verbal phase, which accounts for the modification by genuine adverbs; and a nominal phase, which allows for the modification by adjectives. The pattern haCCaCa, in its turn, was analyzes as formed by a nominal phase alone, both because its morphology, which does not present traces of verbal morphology, as for its obligatory agentive semantics, which differentiates it from the verbal pattern to which it is related to. Last, we considered that the pattern hitCCaCut is formed by two phases, which is compatible to the presence of verbal morphology, that composes the pattern, and to the type of argument that is licensed by it.

O propósito deste estudo é descrever e analisar o comportamento de sentenças médias no português do Brasil (PB), tais como Dissertação de mestrado não se escreve fácil e Cachecol tricota rápido. Muito têm-se discutido a respeito das construções médias, em diversas línguas, visto que elas agregam em si uma complexa relação entre a sintaxe, a semântica e, para alguns, o léxico. Foi a extensa bibliografia e a sempre presente discordância entre autores a respeito dessas construções que despertou nosso interesse em trabalhar com esse tema. Entretanto, descrever as construções médias do português Brasileiro revelou-se uma tarefa das mais árduas. Explica-se: há dois fatores de grande importância para a descrição dessas sentenças que estão em aparente mudança nesse idioma. O primeiro desses fenômenos é a mudança no uso dos clíticos que, de modo geral, está diminuindo em nossa língua (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000). O segundo fenômeno é o fato de o português do Brasil estar passando por um processo generalizado de mudança na classe dos verbos de alternância transitiva, já apontado na literatura (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Negrão (2006)). Tendo como perspectiva teórica a Morfologia Distribuída, um dos recentes desenvolvimentos da Gramática Gerativa, acreditamos poder dar um tratamento unicamente sintático, mais enxuto e uniforme do que as propostas de análise até hoje sugeridas. Fundamentando-nos no trabalho de Marantz (1997), no qual o autor propõe que uma interpretação agentiva de um determinado sintagma pode ser devida, não somente à presença de um núcleo verbal, mas também a informações sintático-semânticas da própria raiz participante da construção. além de baseando-nos na combinação das características sintático-semânticas das raízes envolvidas na construção. Também, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou e Schäfer (2005) hipotetizam, seguindo Kratzer (2002), em favor de decompor os verbos alternantes em uma raiz, um núcleo de causa e um núcleo de voz. Os dados do PB, vistos pela perspectiva da Morfologia Distribuída, nos permitirão ir adiante nas pesquisas sobre o tema específico que desenvolveremos neste trabalho e, ao mesmo tempo, trarão novas evidências e questionamentos a respeito da teoria que apóia este projeto / The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the Middle Construction in Brazilian Portuguese, such as Dissertação de mestrado não escreve fácil and Cachecol tricota rápido. Linguists, working with data form several languages, have discussed extensively about these constructions, because they aggregate in them a complex relationship between syntax, semantics and, in some analysis, the lexicon. It was the comprehensive bibliography and the presence of great discrepancy between authors - about these constructions that awakened our interest in working with this theme. However, describing these constructions in Brazilian Portuguese proved to be one of the most arduous task, since there are two factors of great importance to the description of those sentences that are in apparent change in our language. The first of these phenomena is the change in the use of clitics, which, in general, is decreasing in Brazilian Portuguese (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000)). The second phenomenon is the fact that this language is going through a process of widespread change in the class of alternating transitive verbs, already identified in the literature (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Pollini (2006)). Having as theoretical framework a theory of the architecture of grammar known as Distributed Morphology, one of the recent developments of Generative Grammar (Chomsky, 1960, 1965), we believe we can offer a syntactic treatment, more economical and more uniform than the proposals of analysis suggested so far. Our analysis is fundamented in the proposal from Marantz (1997), who argues that an agentive interpretation for a given phrase may be due, not only to the syntactic presence of a verbal head, but also to the presence of relevant syntactic-semantic features of the root. Also, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2005) hypothesizes, along with Kratzer (2000), in favor of decomposing verbal meaning in a root, a causation head and a Voice head. The data coming from Brazilian Portuguese middle constructions, seen by the perspective of Distributed Morphology, can help the research on this specific topic to develop and, at the same time, bring new evidence and questioning about the theory that supports this project