The full third person pronoun: internal structure and referential relations
Syntax; Pronouns; Binding Theory; φ-Features; Reference.
In this thesis, I make a study on the lexical-syntactic nature of the full third-person pronoun in Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth PB), a personal pronoun not marked in enunciation and prominent to syncretism, from the inventory of φ-features that constitute this pronoun, under the perspective of Phi-feature Theory (see HARBOUR; ADGER; BÉJAR, 2008) and its binding properties (see COLLINS; POSTAL, 2012, CARVALHO; BRITO, 2017), within the framework of the Minimalist Program, Generative Theory, according to Chomsky (1995 and later), in order to identify its distributional and referential status. In order to accomplish this objective, I assume that the internal structure of the pronoun in the lexicon is defined by a feature geometry whose notation imposes restrictions on syntactic derivation and the conceptual-intentional interface, since its form does not seem to interfere in its distribution, nor to establish its scope of reference. Thus, the feature geometry of the full third-person pronoun would consist of pre-syntactic elements, of lexical- semantic nature, namely, definiteness and specificity, which can broaden the understanding of the nature of the person category, since even not being defined in terms of elocution, as the pronouns of first and second person, this pro-form is not categorically underspecified, implying that another aspect, besides participant, composes the condition of personal of the third person: nominal determination. In this sense, I propose that the feature valuation of the notation of the full third-person pronoun, through an adaptation of the Agree operation (see BÉJAR, 2003, 2008; CARVALHO, 2008, 2017) can solve the emergence of this pronoun in others syntactic positions. Furthermore, I propose that the reference of the full third-person pronoun is established not only by the Principle B of the Binding Theory (see CHOMSKY; LASNIK, 1993; CHOMSKY, 1995; BRITO, 2017), but also by the identity of φ-features of the antecedent/referent with the pronoun (see COLLINS; POSTAL, 2012; CARVALHO; BRITO, 2017).