LINGUIST List 6.72

Thu 19 Jan 1995

Books: Syntax, South Asian Langs

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SYNTAX
Marcus Maia. The comprehension of object anaphora in Brazilian Portuguese. USC.
1994. Distributed by GSIL Publications, USC.
 This thesis examines the comprehension of the empty category and the third
person lexical pronoun in object position in Brazilian Portuguese (BP).
Experimental results show that the processing of BP overt and nonovert objects
is consistent with the leading idea underlying the Overt Pronoun Constraint
(OPC) proposed by Montalbetti (84). Experiment 1 compares the processing of
overt pronouns and empty categories in object position in BP in structures in
which these anaphors are A-bound by a subject and in structures in which they
are A-bar-bound by a topic. Results from 48 BP speakers indicate reactivation
of the antecedents only by topic-bound gaps and by subject-bound overt pronouns
In Experiment 2, the difference between the coreferential vs. bound readings in
BP is further investigated by comparing the possibility of the strict and
sloppy readings for the overt pronoun and the gap in object position. Based on
these experimental results, we argue for the classification of the BP null
object as an instance of a null epithet, an empty R-expression with pronominal
properties. The experiments are also informative with relation to several
theoretical psycholinguistic issues.
For more information, please contact GSIL Publications gsilscf.usc.edu
SOUTH ASIAN LANGS
PAN-ASIATIC LINGUISTICS: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium
 on Language and Linguistics. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,
 Thailand. 8-10 January 1992. 1482 pp. (3 vol.). US$53.00 (cloth)
 including postage by airmail.
 The set contains 118 papers presented at the Symposium. The
papers deal with languages spoken in every part of Asia with emphasis on
Southeast Asian languages. Areas covered are Phonetics, Phonology,
Morphology, Syntax, Diachronic Studies, Sociolinguistics, Language
Contact, Typology, Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, and Natural
Language Processing.
 Available from Wholesale Department, University Bookstore,
Chulalongkorn University, Phyathai Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
(Bank draft or international money order only.)