Reanalysis of semantic variables in the conditioning of the null object and the tonic pronoun in the speech of Florianópolis

Abstract

In this article, we analyzed the third person anaphoric direct object, investigating two very productive strategies in Brazilian Portuguese: the tonic pronoun (ele\ela, ‘he\she’) and an empty category (a null object). Since these two strategies are not in free variation, our main goal was to verify which semantic feature of the antecedent might be serving as internal conditioning for the use of tonic pronouns or the empty category. Based on recent literature on the subject (CREUS; MENUZZI, 2004; PIVETTA, 2015; AYRES, 2016; OTHERO et al. 2016; OTHERO; SCHWANKE, 2017), we decided to re-examine the data presented in Vieira-Pinto (2015), and Vieira-Pinto and Coelho (2016) using sociolinguistic interviews from the Florianópolis. We investigated three variables related to the NP antecedent: animacy, specificity and semantic gender. Confirming the hypothesis originally proposed by Creus e Menuzzi (2004), we conclude that the semantic gender of the antecedent is the main feature for the phenomenon of the anaphoric direct object, as follows: antecedents with identified semantic gender favor pronominal anaphora, whereas antecedents without identified semantic gender favor the null object.