Eckhard Bick - VISL

their clause internal function ("external" complementiser function being expressed
implicitely by their bearing the subclause function tag @#).
Though in part semantically motivated, these subclasses can - to a certain degree -
be differentiated by their syntagmatic preferences, with circumstantials
(characteristically) in clause-final, clause-initial or clefted position, and set- and timeoperators
in pre-scope position (i.e. immediately left to the predicator). Though they
don’t allow clefting either, meta-operators differ from the other operator types in that
they can be fronted, like circumstantials, or break syntactic continuity by commaisolation.
Most circumstantials, notably not-too-heavy time & place adverbials, can
appear between subject and predicator, i.e. in what seems to be pre-verbal position. In
the case of positional conflict, however, there is a clear order of constituents 177 :
SUBJ – circumstantial/meta operator – time operator – set operator – VFIN
ele hoje obviamente ainda não comeu
obviamente hoje
Manner adverbials, however, that semantically refer to the main verb (i.e. can’t be
isolated by the ’o que aconteceu?’ test), are barred from pre-verbal position. Manner
adverbials that semantically refer to the subject (and, thus, could be called predicative
adverbials), don’t pass the ’o que aconteceu?’ test either (since ’acontecer’ covers both
subject and predicate), but they do appear between subject and predicate (just like their
semantic cousins, @PRED constituents). If in positional conflict with other prepredicate
adverbials, predicative adverbials are placed left of set-operators, and right of
circumstantials and meta-operators:
A menina hoje (TIME) comeu o bolo.
timidamente (PREDICATIVE)
devagar* (MANNER)
A menina provavelmente hoje já timidamente também comeu o bolo.
In contrast to operators - the semantic function of which is to modify the semantic
content of other constituents -, circumstantials and adverbial complementisers do have a
semantic payload of their own, most noticeable that of PLACE, TIME and MANNER,
as in "onde ", "quando", "como". These semantically "loaded" adverbials have to be
disambiguated into valency-bound @ADV (cf. 4.5.4.1) and adjunct @ADVL, but only
for place-adverbials is there a significant number of binding verb lexemes. Examples for
time ('durar uma semana') and manner ('estar bem') are few and controversial.
177 Sequences like ’não ainda’, ’até hoje’ etc., that seem to violate this rule, can be explained by the fact that set-operators
can modify time operators, and both can modify circumstantials at group level. On clause level, however, there is a preferred
order.
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