El próximo martes 7 de abril a las 11 hs. expondrá Uiara Nunes, de la Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina (Brasil): "The Curious Semantics of Qualquer in Brazilian Portuguese" en el seminario IIF.
Abstract: This work examines the distribution and interpretation of qualquer in Brazilian Portuguese, placing it within the broader system of Free Choice expressions. It begins by bringing together results from the literature and organising them into a structured empirical overview, covering contexts such as generic statements, modal environments, imperatives, conditionals, negation, and episodic predicates, as well as contrasts between qualquer N, um N qualquer, and plural and numeral constructions with quaisquer. On the theoretical side, the study revisits the development of alternative-based approaches, moving from Heim’s (1982) treatment of indefinites through polarity-based accounts, including Kadmon and Landman (1993) and Dayal (1998, 2012), and incorporating crosslinguistic evidence from English, Spanish, and Italian. Against this background, Chierchia’s (2013) framework is applied to Brazilian Portuguese data to test its empirical coverage. While the analysis captures a substantial portion of the behaviour of qualquer, some cases remain resistant to derivation under the current formulation. Rather than offering a definitive account, the work aims to clarify the empirical landscape and identify where further theoretical work is required.
