Formal Approaches to Languages of South America

Cilene Rodrigues is Adjunct Professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and Research fellow of Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa  (CNPq/Brazil). Her PhD thesis (University of Maryland, 2004) focused on licensing of null subjects in Partial Pro-drop languages.  She is currently directing research on: (a) the grammar of Brazilian Languages, especially Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, Tupi-Guarani languages and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras); (b) evolution of language, with interdisciplinary investigations on language and psychosis, particularly schizophrenia, grammar and interjections, verbal versus vocal behavior, with fieldwork on the vocal repertoire of Capuchin monkeys.   Andrés Saab studied Literature and Linguistics at the University of Buenos Aires and at the National University of Comahue (Argentina). In 2009, he defended his PhD dissertation on the theory of ellipsis. Currently, he is Independent Researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), having the Argentinian Society for Philosophical Analysis (IIF-SADAF-CONICET) as official work-place, and Associate Professor at the University of Buenos Aires. His main research topics are ellipsis, copy theory of movement, null subjects and, more broadly, the syntax– interface connection. His research has been published by international journals and books (among others, Linguistic Inquiry, The Oxford Handbook of Ellipsis, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Lingua, Probus, Studia Linguistica). He is also co-author of Dimensiones del Significado. Una introducción a la semántica formal (with Fernando Carranza, SADAF, Buenos Aires, 2021), co-editor of Slurs and Expressivity. Semantics and Beyond (with Eleonora Orlando, Lexington, USA, 2021), and co-editor of the volume Romance Language and Linguistic Theory2010 (with Irene Franco and Sara Lusini, John Benjamins, Amsterdam. 2012).

• Chapter 1 Cilene Rodrigues and Andrés Saab.- Part I: South-American Sign Languages.- Chapter 2 The Morpho-Phonology of Nominal Plurality in Argentinian Sign Language (Lsa).- Chapter 3 The Grammar of Agreement in Libras.- Chapter 4 Argument Structure in Peruvian Sign Language.- Chapter 5 Blending Libras and Portuguese: Acceptability Variables.- Part II: South-American Romance Languages.- Chapter 6 The Grammaticalization of igual in Argentinean Spanish.- Chapter 7 Approaching the so Called “topic-subjects” in Brazilian Portuguese from Below.- Chapter 8 Is Chilean Spanish a Canonical Pro-Drop Variety? On Subjecthood in Chilean Spanish.- Chapter 9 Ways of number marking: English and Brazilian Portuguese.- Part III: South-American Indigenous Languages.- Chapter 10 Compounding Processes in Three Macro-Jê Linguistic Branches.- Chapter 11 Poro‑/mba'e- antipassive prefixation in Paraguayan Guarani.- Chapter 12 Argument Structure and Morphology in Cochabamba Quechua (with occasional comparison with other Quechua varieties).- Chapter 13 Definiteness in A’ingae and its implications for pragmatic competition.