Patrícia Amaral Research Collection

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/24546

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Browsing Patrícia Amaral Research Collection by Subject "Spanish"

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    Not a fact: A synchronic analysis of el hecho de and o facto de
    (Probus: International Journal of Latin and Romance Linguistics, 2019-05-10) Amaral, Patrícia; Cantero, Manuel D.
    This paper provides empirical evidence showing that the clause-taking nominals el hecho de (Spanish) and o facto de (Portuguese) are not reliable tests of factivity of predicates, as commonly assumed in the literature. Naturally occurring data from both languages show that these nominals are compatible with a wide range of predicates and that they occur in sentences with both factive and non-factive interpretations. Our findings contribute to the debate on the syntactic and semantic properties of clause-taking nominal constructions, clausal nominalization in Ibero-Romance, and to current research on the nature of factivity.
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    When "something" becomes "a bit"
    (Diachronica: International Journal of Historical Linguistics, 2016-08-11) Amaral, Patrícia
    This paper analyzes the mechanisms of syntactic and semantic change involved in the development of the degree modifier algo 'a bit' from an indefinite pronoun meaning 'something' in Spanish, from the Medieval to the Classical period. It focuses both on the structural conditions for the reanalysis of the pronoun in pseudo-partitive constructions and on the pragmatic inferences licensed by its quantificational and indefinite meaning. This diachronic development is studied against the background of cross-linguistic tendencies in the distribution of degree modifiers, thus providing a historical perspective on the cross-categorial nature of gradability.