On the structure of locative PPs in Brazilian Portuguese: noun or axial part?

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate with Brazilian Portuguese (PB) data Svenonius’ (2006, 2010) syntactical-semantic proposal to the so-called “axial structures”, expressions such as ‘em frente a’ that are interpreted as denoting a spatial region projected from a GROUND. After critically evaluating the Svenonius’ (2006, 2010) proposal, which claims in favor of a specific functional head as the host for a lexeme such as ‘frente’, we present Matushansky and Zwarts’ (in press) solution, which claims that this is, in fact, a “weak noun”. Our analysis of PB axial structures leads to favor Matushansky and Zwarts’ (in press) proposal.

摘要 本文依托巴西葡萄牙语（Brazilian Portuguese, PB）语料，探究斯文努尼斯（Svenonius，2006、2010）针对所谓"轴向结构（axial structures）"提出的句法语义提案——此类表达式如葡萄牙语短语"em frente a"，其语义被解读为指代源自参照体（GROUND）的空间区域。在对斯文努尼斯（2006、2010）的提案展开批判性评析后（该提案主张以特定功能中心语（functional head）作为"frente"这类词位（lexeme）的承载成分），本文介绍了马特尚斯基与茨瓦茨（Matushansky and Zwarts，即刊）的解决方案：该方案认为此类成分本质上属于"弱名词（weak noun）"。针对巴西葡萄牙语轴向结构的分析最终支持马特尚斯基与茨瓦茨（即刊）的提案。