A CADA UM MINUTO, QUATRO COISAS VENDEM: UMA CONSTRUÇÃO EM QUESTÃO NO PORTUGUÊS

Abstract

This dissertation aims to describe some constructions such as: (i) “A cada um minuto, quatro coisas vendem’; (ii) “Essa caneta escreve bem”; (iii) “Esse vestido abotoa”. When we analyze the examples mentioned, it is noticed that there is a similarity with passive constructions, due to some traces presented in passive and middle constructions, which descrive static objects as the fact of both delete the AE (External Argument), a main caracteristic in passive constructions. In addition, these examples also approximate on ergative constructions, which describe events, since they share traces with intransitive constructions from languages which have ergative-absolutive system. However, in the literature, for Kemmer (1993), Inês Duarte (2003) and Cambrussi (2007), the examples from (i) to (iii) are commonly called middle constructions, whereas for Givón (2001) and Keenan and Dryer (2006), the examples are considered ergative constructions. Faced with these different positions, it is necessary to investigate the characteristics of these constructions to distinguish them from others – passive and ergative. The greatest similarity is centered between middle and ergative, differing only semantically. It was verified that there is no syntatic difference between middles and ergatives, in other words, there is no way to take a position for the examples in this perspective, since only the requirement of an adverbial modifier for middles is not enough. Semantically, we observed that the tense aspect and the lexical one differentiate them, since only the present tense licenses the middle, besides the generic character conferred only to middles.