Chapter 7. The comitative-copular basis of possessive-existential constructions in Brazilian Portuguese

This paper shows that some properties of possessive and existential sentences in Brazilian Portuguese can be properly explained if the possessive-existential verb ter ‘have’ is derived by the combination of the features associated with estar ‘be’ and the features corresponding to the comitative preposition com ‘with’. I will concentrate on the following facts: (i) the thematic parallelism betweenter- and estar com-clauses in possessive and existential domains; (ii) the restrict interpretation of null possessors in ter-constructions; and (iii) the emergence of ter as an existential verb in Brazilian Portuguese, but not in European Portuguese.