Eckhard Bick - VISL

AB
todos estes
ambos
os
uns, uma, cada, nenhum, certo
vários DET, diversos DET
tantos, quantos, quais
cujos
seus
meus
outros
mesmos
próprio DET
- 220 -
poucos
muitos
três
primeiros
últimos
velhos
novos
meros
meios
livros
amigos
dentes
paulistas
conhecidos
paulistas
perdidos
do Brasil
seus
todos
próprio
The first 4 fields, A, B, C and D are determiner prenominals, the fifth is for “attributive”
prenominals, the sixth is for the np-head, and the last accommodates postnominal
modifiers and arguments. The 4 determiner fields, as a rule, do not allow iteration (i.e.
more than 1 element per field), while the attributive fields 5 and 7 do. Note that the
determiner subclasses are arrived at by permutation tests only, while traditional pronoun
classification is primarily semantic. There is some co-extension of classes, though.
Thus, the demonstrative class () is roughly equivalent to B, and the possessive
class is equivalent to C. The pronouns ‘mesmo’ and ‘próprio’ (‘himself’) are sometimes
semantically classified as demonstratives, as in Almeida (1994), but seem
permutationally to belong to class C:
estes mesmos/meus poucos amigos
esses meus/outros poucos amigos
o próprio/meu pai
os próprios/meus sete nanos
Perini (1989, p.153) lumps ‘mesmo’ with the possessives on these grounds, alongside
with ‘outro’, noting the free order within the class:
esse outro meu amigo/ esse meu outro amigo
There is, however, yet another possibility: ‘mesmo’, ‘próprio’ and – in a way – ‘outro’
can’t substitute for neither a demonstrative or a possessive:
comprou este/meu/*mesmo/*próprio/?outro carro
The explanation is that ‘mesmo’ and ‘próprio’ can’t be the first element of an np.
Rather, they function as a kind of “identity modifiers” that follow certain definite
determiners (i.e. demonstratives and possessives). When following ‘o’ or ‘este’, identity