On the Raising of the Finite Main Verb in Angolan Portuguese and in Mozambican Portuguese: Cartographic Hierarchies, Microvariation and the Use of Adverbs as Diagnostics for Movement

Abstract

Abstract This paper revisits the issue of verb raising in two closely related languages, namely Angolan Portuguese (AP) and Mozambican Portuguese (MP). Cinque’s (cartographic) hierarchy of adverbs is used to examine microvariation in these two varieties of Portuguese. The empirical data, gathered through experiments on acceptability rating tasks (to detect the position of the V(erb) in relation to adverbs) and cloze tests (to diagnose the adverbial classes which can be recovered by the elliptical VP), have been collected among university students in Luanda and Maputo, the capitals of Angola and Mozambique, respectively. The cutting points within the functional hierarchy where the V goes, be it mandatorily or optionally, are different in the two languages. In AP, the verb must raise past the frustrative aspect adverb (em vão/à toa ‘in vain’), while in MP the verb must raise to the left of the singular completive adverb (tudo ‘everything’). The main verb cannot raise past the AspTerminative adverb (já não/não mais ‘no longer’) in MP. In AP, it can optionally raise over the highest projection in the inflectional domain. Such a difference may explain the recovery of high adverbs in VP-ellipsis structures, only possible in AP. The corollary of the inter-linguistic study developed for Comparative Syntax is the adequacy of the cartographic démarche when it comes to establishment of strict boundaries in the study of microvariation among closely related grammars.