“TOPIC-SUBJECT” CONSTRUCTIONS IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE AND MINIMALITY WITHIN THE AGREE MODEL

Abstract

“Topic-subject” constructions have received considerable attention in the literature on Brazilian Portuguese (BP), as topics appear to be grammaticalized as subjects, triggering verb agreement. Chomsky’s (2000, 2001, 2008) Agree-based model seems to provide the necessary theoretical ingredients to analyze such constructions, as it takes C (a left periphery head generally associated with the mapping from syntax to discourse) to act jointly with T in determining verb agreement and licensing nominative Case. This paper discusses three representative analyses of “topic-subject” constructions developed within the Agree model (AVELAR; GALVES, 2011, 2020; and MUNHOZ; NAVES, 2012) and argues that approaches that attempt to analyze “topic-subjects” in terms of special properties ascribed to the C-T connection in BP are bound to face minimality problems. Following Kato and Ordóñez (2019) in taking the emergence of “topic-subject” constructions in BP to be related to changes within its vPs and DPs and assuming with Nunes and Kato (forthcoming) that these changes have led to a pervasive use of inherent Case in BP, I show that inherent Case provides the key factor in the derivation of “topic-subject” constructions, as it bleeds minimality computations (see NUNES, 2017).