Syntactic analysis of cognate objects within the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology

Abstract

Cognate constructions form a very extended family and they exist in different world languages. In this paper, we analyze Cognate Object’s types and subtypes in European Portuguese, using the framework of Distributed Morphology. From a theoretical point of view, the assumptions of this model allow us to explain that verbs with different syntactic-semantic properties (sonhar [to dream], tossir [to cough], cantar [to sing] and dormir [to sleep]) may occur in structures with a cognate object in verbal adjacency, typically in a direct object position. Movement by copy and co-indexing prove to be central mechanisms to the licensing of the cognate object constructions with an eventive interpretation, as in tossir-tosse [to cough-cough].