Previsão de contraste em sentenças com advérbio focalizador e clivagem em Português Brasileiro

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the processing of sentences with the focus particle ‘só’ (‘only’) and it-clefts, in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Previous research (CARLSON, 2015; FILIK et al, 2009; LIVERSEDGE et al, 2002; PATERSON et al, 1999), in the area of Psycholinguistics, shows the influence of 'só' and clefting structures in the focus of the sentence during processing, as well as the prediction of contrast and exhaustiveness (CARLSON, 2014; DRENHAUS et al, 2011) caused by such markers. This research was developed in the area of Experimental Psycholinguistics (LEITÃO, 2008; TRAXLER, 2012; WARREN, 2013) and aimed to investigate whether and how these different focus marking strategies (KISS, 1998; ROOTH, 1992) influence the processing of upcoming coordinate sentences. To fulfill this purpose, two sentence completion experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, based on Carlson (2014), the scope of the focusing particle 'só' varied between subject and object of the sentence, as in: 1a) ‘Na terça-feira, só o caixa ajudou o vendedor na loja, mas...’ / ‘On Tuesday, only the cashier helped the salesperson at the store , but...’ and 1b) ‘Na terça-feira, o caixa ajudou só o vendedor na loja, mas...’ / ‘On Tuesday, the cashier only helped the salesperson at the store, but...’. In the second experiment, with total cleaved sentences, the structures varied between subject cleaved and object cleaved: 2a) ‘Ontem, foi a Thaís quem salvou o Leonardo de se afogar no mar, e...’ / Yesterday, it was Thais who saved Leonardo from drowning in the sea, and...’ and 2b) ‘Ontem, foi o Leonardo quem a Thaís salvou de se afogar no mar, e...’ / ‘Yesterday, it was the Leonardo who Thais saved from drowning in the sea, and...’. It was expected that in both experiments there would be a preference for completion options that were contrastive to the main clause (experimental item), considering the exhaustiveness marked both by the adverb 'só’ and by the clefts (CARLSON; 2014; 2015; DRENHAUS et al, 2011), also the prediction of this contrast (FERREIRA & LOWDER, 2016; HUETTIG, 2015; PICKERING & GARROD, 2013; PICKERING & GAMBI, 2018). The results confirmed the hypothesis that the variation in the position of the focus markers caused variations in the predicted structures.