Mesmo (same) and the structure of determiner phrases

Abstract

This paper analyzes the Brazilian Portuguese adjective mesmo with anaphoric reading (MOLTMANN, 1993; FERREIRA, 2010). Expanding the functional layer of the determiner phrase (e. g., CINQUE, 2010), this analysis proposes that mesmo has “pronominal” properties and that there is a specific position in the functional structure of DP/NP which hosts both possessive pronouns and anaphoric mesmo, at least in the end of derivation, and such a position is in fact a host for adjectives with pronominal properties. In the last sections the article (using tools of formal semantics: e. g. HEIM; KRATZER, 1998) presents a semantic definition for anaphoric mesmo, arguing that it is a sort of implicit comparative item (CARLSON, 1987), with a “comparison function” as part of its very definition. We propose, taking advantage of insights of the pertinent literature (ALRENGA, 2010; HEIM, 1985; LASERSOHN, 2000; among others), that the semantics of mesmo is composed of an assignment function and a function which establishes a contextual equivalence by means of the sharing of relevant properties between the referent or kind introduced by the DP with mesmo and an individual or kind mentioned in previous discourse. In the end of the paper, we briefly speculate on the semantics of what is here called “explicit” comparative mesmo (that includes a comparative CP after the noun), which, as well as the distributive mesmo (CARLSON, 1987, among others), and as this text intends to show in the following pages, is hierarchically lower, in the syntax of DPs, than anaphoric mesmo.