Prosodic evidences to sentential negation in Brazilian portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese (BP) permits at least three kinds of sentential negation Neg1 (Não VP), Neg2 (Não VP Não) and Neg3 (VP Não). The theme of this paper is the nature of this variation. We will try to demonstrate that at least in some contexts Neg2 exhibit properties associated with presupposed denial, reflecting fundamental differences in relation to canonical negation (Neg1). Some contexts show the incompatibility of Neg2 and Neg1. We believe this incompatibility can be explained by presupposition and scope. The aim of this paper is try to show the relation between the negation structures in BP and the pragmatic content.