Causal clauses and information structure of the sentence

Abstract

This paper investigates Brazilian Portuguese causal clauses introduced by porque. The objective is to show that, to obtain an adequate analysis of these clauses, the information structure of the sentence must be considered. It is generally assumed that proper causal clauses with porque are always focused; for that reason, they are analyzed as central subordinate clauses. This paper shows that it is possible to assign different information structures to these constructions: (i) the causal construction is associated to a single focus-presupposition structure, in which the main clause conveys the presupposition and the causal clause, the focus; or (ii) the causal construction is associated to two distinct focus-presupposition structures. It is argued that, while the analysis as a central subordinate applies correctly to the cases described by (i), this analysis is not appropriate for the cases described by (ii). The conclusion is that this kind of causal clauses should be analyzed as peripheral adverbial clauses.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1135