THE FORMATIONS IN-DOR: A SYNTATIC-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
Word Formation. Suffix –dor. Eventive Readings. Distributed Morfology.
This work aims to investigate the words derived from the suffix -dor in Portuguese, considering the general assumptions of Generative Grammar Theory. In the literature, the suffix -dor is usually characterized by deriving deverbal words with habitual agentive value, deriving either nouns or adjectives with those values (OLIVEIRA, 2009). However, we observed that the words derived with the suffix present a greater diversity and, therefore, greater complexity than those pointed out in the literature. In addition to the usual reading associated, we observed that it is possible to find other readings, such as progressive and non-progressive, as well as words that the reading is a perfective event. In order to point towards the reasons that accounts for this complexity, I suggest and analyze for these formations, assuming the theoretical assumptions of Distributed Morphology (HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993, MARANTZ, 1997; SIDIQQI, 2009), considering that -dor can be interpreted as a pro-form element, inserted in nonverbal contexts. The central hypothesis that leads the present work is that different readings are the result of the various possibilities in the configuration of the syntactic structure underlying each of these words. In order to understand how this process works, we perform a detailed description of the occurrences found, considering the possible factors that may interfere in the different readings that the words with the suffix -dor present in Portuguese, such as the properties of the base verb and the projections that may be present in the structure of these words.