Showing a limited preview of this publication:
Abstract
The status of the expression a gente (lit. the people) in European Portuguese is the topic of this paper. We revisit its classical analysis, treating it as a pronoun, and the explanation for the patterns of agreement it may trigger on the inflected verb. In particular, the paper addresses Taylor's (2009) argument against the pronominal status of a gente, and argues that it can be analyzed as a regular DP. We compare a gente with other pronouns, showing that there are more robust regularities than those described in Taylor's arguments, but adopt part of his analysis to accommodate the variable status of agreement patterns under a phase-based approach.
Published Online: 2013-06-22
Published in Print: 2013-06-13
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
