Research

PhD in Linguistics

University of São Paulo · 2015 - 2019

Advisor: Raquel Santos
Project: Unstressed vowel neutralization in Brazilian Portuguese

Visiting Exchange Scholar

University of Southern California · Jul 2017 - Jun 2018

Supervisor: Rachel Walker
Grant: International Visiting Scholar Grant - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

M.A. in Linguistics

University of São Paulo · 2013 - 2015

Advisor: Raquel Santos
Project: Postonic mid-vowel alternation in Brazilian Portuguese

B.A. in Letters

Federal University of Maranhão · 2008 - 2013

Reduction via laxing in northern dialect of Brazilian Portuguese

2015 - 2019

Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has an inventory of seven vowels in stressed syllable /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/. The contrast between lax /ɛ, ɔ/ and tense vowels /e, o/ is lost in unstressed contexts. In southern dialect, reduction favors tense vowels [e, o] (eg. p[ɛ]le ‘skin’; p[e]lada ‘naked’, (underline indicates stress)), and lax vowels are, in general, blocked outside the stressed syllable. However, this is not the case for northern dialects, where lax vowels [ɛ, ɔ] are licensed in pretonic (eg. p[ɛ]lada ‘naked’) and non-final postonic syllables (eg. vesp[ɛ]r[a] ‘eve’), but also alternate with tense (eg. b[e]leza ‘beauty’; corr[e]go ‘stream’) and high vowels (eg. [i]ntrega ‘delivery’; tip[i]co ‘typical’). As noted by Crosswhite (2004), reduction via tensing fits in much better with the theoretical approaches to vowel reduction. In this dissertation, I argue that reduction via laxing in northern dialects of Brazilian Portuguese result from a interaction of two types of neutralization - contrast enhancement and prominence alignment. Throught contraints ranking, it is shown how this pattern is derived while also capturing the standard case of reduction via tensing in southern dialects.

See my PhD dissertation (in Portuguese) here

Grant: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. Process n. 140139/2015-0

External Sandhi in Brazilian Portuguese

(with Raquel Santos) · 2017 - Ongoing

Previous studies of external sandhi in Brazilian Portuguese have proposed the existence of three categorical process targeting adjacent vowels in word boundaries: elision (car[a] [i]doso ~ car[i]doso ‘old guy’); dipthongation (car[aj]doso) and degemination (caz[a] [a]marela ~ caz[a]marela ‘yellow house’)/ The general picture of what has been claimed is: (i) external sandhi in BP is blocked when there is an intonational prominence in the context; (ii) dipthongation only occurs if at least one of the vowels is high; (iii) in a V1+V2 context, elision occurs only if V1 is [back]; (iv) it is only possible for elision to occur with a front vowel if the vowel is in V1 position and preceded by a coronal fricative (rceb[i] [a]mor ~ *receb[a]mor ‘recieves love’; conhe[si] [a]lguém ~ conhe[sa]lguém ‘knows someone’). This project is analyzing the patterns in a V1+V2+V3 sequence (eg. conhec[i] [a] [i]greja ‘knows the church’) in different dialects of Brazilian Portuguese. I am also investigating if the unexpected patterns attested by our data are better explained through an articulatory phonology perspective.

Postonic mid-vowel alternation in Brazilian Portuguese

2013 - 2015

Brazilian Portuguese has a seven-vowel system in stressed position /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/, which is neutralized in unstressed syllables. In northern dialects, lax-mid [ɛ, ɔ], tense-mid [e, o] and high vowels [i, u] alternate in non-final postonic context. In southern dialects, alternation is only observed between tense-mid [e, o] and high vowels [i, u], as lax-mid vowels are, in general, not licensed outside the stressed syllable. This projected analyzed this alternation in both dialects. I have argued that both lax-mid and high-vowels are fully predictable in non-final postonic context, resulting from height harmony triggered by the vowel in final postonic position.

See my master’s dissertation (in Portuguese) here

Research grant: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. Process n. 130194/2013-1

Syncope in Brazilian Portuguese

2010- 2013

Syncope in BP can be defined as a variable process that deletes the vowel in non-final postonic syllables (eg. [ˈah.vo.ɾɪ] ~ [ˈah.vɾɪ] ‘tree’). Note that the process has a direct effect on stress position: when syncope occurs, stress shifts from the antepenultimate (marked stress pattern in BP) to the penultimate syllable (standard pattern).
At first, the sociolinguistic character of the phenomenon was targeted: syncope in Brazilian Portuguese is stigmatized, viewed as a characteristic of speakers with low level of formal education. However, the process only occurs if deleting the vowel results in well-formed syllable (eg. ˈti.pi.ku ~ *tip.ku, *ti.pku) and this is ultimately what determines its occurrence. More recently, I have analyzed its phonological character: as syncope has a direct effect on syllable stress, I argue that the it is motivated by the reestablishment of the canonical foot of the language, a syllabic trochee at the right edge of the word.