Exponence of gender and thematic class in Brazilian Portuguese

ABSTRACT

In this paper we discuss the interaction between phonological constraints and constraints responsible for the exponence of morphemes of gender and thematic class in Brazilian Portuguese in an optimalistic realizational approach, the Optimal Interleaving, combined with Harmonic Serialism (cf.: McCarthy 2011). For this purpose, we depart from a hierarchy of these marks in the language (cf.: Schwindt 2011) confronted with productivity data. The analysis allowed to formalize the preference of class over gender in the case of masculine and gender over class in the case of the feminine, and it also allowed to deal with alomorphic zeros as a product of non realization of morphological information.

Key-words: Grammatical gender; Thematic class; Optimal Interleaving; Harmonic Serialism