Overt Nominative Subjects in Infinitival Complements Cross - NYU ...

NYU Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 2: Papers in Syntax, Spring 2009 353.2.6 Summary of the Mexican Spanish dataOverall, the Mexican Spanish data are consistent with the generalizations reached in Hungarianand Italian, but are in themselves less transparent. This is due (i) to the larger number ofambiguous sentences and (ii) to the existence of pronominal doubles in mono-clausal examples,coupled with the fact that (my informant’s variety of) Mexican Spanish lacks the `we linguist’construction that was used in Italian to diagnose pronominal doubles in infinitival complements.3.3 Brazilian Portuguese (thanks to Cristina Schmitt and Alessandro Boechat for dataand discussion)3.3.1 ControlThe two items below come from Google. I thank Michael Taylor for checking the larger context(reproduced in one example only) to make certain that the LO reading is intended.(159) Bem, tenho tentado ser uma boa amiga e vou ao hospital sempre que posso e falocorn a Amy pelo telefone toda hora mas, hoje corn essa neve toda, não sei bem o quefazer ainda,não quero eu também acabar doente...LO: `I don’t want it to be the case that I too get sick’(160) Não quero eu também ser falso moralista.LO: `I don’t want it to be the case that I too am a false moralist’3.3.2 One finite verb – multiple subjects in controlWritten Brazilian Portuguese requires pro-drop, but overt unstressed pronouns occur and seem tobe preferred in the spoken language. Thus the sentences below are very colloquial. The presenceof the overt matrix subject is important because it ensures that the eu `I’ following the finite verbbelongs to the infinitival clause.The contrastive contexts and multiple pronouns are quite similar to what one finds inHungarian. While both Schmitt and Boechat judged them to be fine, some other speakers,possibly of a different dialect, did not tolerate three overt subjects. The examples becomeunacceptable with a name in the place of the first pronoun in the complement; the sentences aregrammatical with o João in initial position.(161) [Context: Mary slipped on the wet floor]Eu não quero eu também escorregar neste chão.LO: `I don’t want it to be the case that I too slip on this floor’(162) *Não quer o João também escorregar neste chão.(163) [Context: Mary tried to be the only one to speak with the director]Eu não queria eu também tentar só eu falar com o diretor.`I didn’t want to be another one who tries to be the only one who speaks with the