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In the well-known causative alternation, a verb appears either in a causative-transitive or in an inchoative-intransitive form. The inchoative form is marked with a reflexive clitic in some languages, such as Norwegian, but is unmarked in others, such as English. There are two main proposals to explain the alternation: a lexical-derivational account (a lexical rule is responsible for the demotion of the cause argument), and a syntactic-derivational one (in a type of reflexivization, the theme/patient is construed as responsible for causing the event). A third type of approach posits that the alternation emerges when a verb can be found in different constructions and no derivation is involved. Lundquist et al. (Glossa J Gen Linguist 1:1-30, 2016) put the first two approaches to experimental testing and found that while the decausativization approach is adequate for English, the reflexivization approach explains the Norwegian facts. The present experimental study investigates which proposal is adequate to explain the alternation in Brazilian Portuguese. Differently from both English and Norwegian, Brazilian Portuguese allows reflexive-marked and unmarked inchoatives with the same verb. In a replication of Lundquist et al.'s (Glossa J Gen Linguist 1:1-30, 2016) experiment, our results show that Brazilian Portuguese assigns distinct meanings to the two forms of the inchoative. We conclude that the reflexive pronoun se indicates that the change of state described in the inchoative sentence was caused by some entity, but not an agent. We then argue that a non-derivational approach explains the alternation, as a single verb occurs in distinct syntactic configurations, with distinct meaning implications., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The present study examines the phonetic and phonological status of vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese. In order to compare the effects of duration and metrical structure, we tested the influence of duration on the realization of /a/ in five prosodic positions: word-initial pretonic, word-medial pretonic, tonic, word-medial posttonic, and word-final posttonic. The results revealed that, while both phonetic duration and prosodic position had effects on F1 values for /a/, the categorical effect of prosodic position was much stronger and more reliable. In particular, F1 values for /a/ were best predicted by a two-way distinction between posttonic and non-posttonic syllable positions. Correlations between a vowel's duration and its F1 frequency were statistically significant but generally weak in all positions. We argue that these findings suggest that vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese primarily reflects phonological patterning rather than phonetic undershoot, although there was also evidence for some amount of undershoot. Brazilian Portuguese can therefore be said to have a mixed system of phonological and phonetic reduction. The present study discusses the results in the context of Brazilian Portuguese metrical organization, sound change, and the relation between phonetics and phonology., (© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.)

The Perceptions of Dating Infidelity Scale (PDIS) assesses how people perceive infidelity through specific behaviors. Originally developed by Wilson et al. (2011), it contains 12 items distributed into three factors: (1) ambiguous, (2) deceptive, and (3) explicit behaviors. In the present research, translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and validation of the PDIS in Brazilian Portuguese were performed. First, qualitative analyses took place: translation, translation synthesis, content validation, pre-test, and reverse translation. Then, quantitative analyses were conducted: psychometric parameter tests with confirmatory factor analysis and reliability. A total of 252 participants were recruited, 160 of whom were female (63.5%). The results indicated consistent PDIS adequacy (conceptual and idiomatic equivalences); satisfactory content validity coefficients regarding language clarity, practical pertinence, and theoretical relevance; and an almost perfect level of consensus regarding the theoretical dimension. The application of the pre-test was proven to be a good parameter for estimating the comprehension of the instrument in the culture for which it was intended. Confirmatory factor analysis showed good indices of adjustment quality of the tested trifactorial model (three factors being identified with ambiguous, deceptive, and explicit behaviors). Therefore, the structure indicated in the original version was corroborated and the instrument's reliability confirmed. The Brazilian Portuguese PDIS is a useful tool for evaluating infidelity perceptions in the Brazilian culture., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

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Lateral vocalization is a cross-linguistically common phenomenon where a lateral is realized as a glide, such as [w, j], or a vowel [u, i]. In this paper, we focus on the articulatory triggers that could cause lateral vocalization. We examined Brazilian Portuguese, a language known for the process of lateral vocalization in coda position. We examined the lateral in onset and coda position in four vocalic environments and compared the dynamic tongue contours and contours at the point of maximum constriction in each environment. We also performed biomechanical simulations of lateral articulation and the vocalized lateral. The results indicate increased tongue body retraction in coda position, which is accompanied by tongue body raising. Simulations further revealed that vocalized laterals mainly recruit intrinsic lingual muscles along with the styloglossus. Taken together, the data suggest that vocalization is a result of positional phonetic effects including lenition and additional retraction in the coda position.

Background: AIMS: To describe typical phonological development of Brazilian Portuguese (BP)-speaking children, considering the following parameters: age of customary production, acquisition and mastery., Methods & Procedures: Data were collected from 857 children aged between 3 years and 8 years 11 months with typical language and speech development. The sample was grouped into 6-month age bands. The data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Games-Howell post-hoc tests., Outcomes & Results: Stops (/p, b, t, d, k, g/), nasals (/m, n, ɲ/) and some fricatives (/f, v, s, z/) were mastered before the age of 3 years (age of mastery). The age of acquisition for phonemes /ʃ, ʒ/ was 3;6, though both were only mastered at 4;0 years. The liquid /l/ was acquired at 3;0 and mastered at age 3;6, while /x/ was acquired and mastered at age 3;6. The phoneme /ʎ/ was acquired at 7;0 and mastered at age 8;6. The tap /ɾ/ was acquired between the ages of 4;0 and 4;6, and mastered at 4;6. In coda position, /n, l/ were acquired at 3;0, while /s/ was mastered at 4;6 and /ɾ/ between 4;6 and 5;0 years. Clusters involving /ɾ/ were acquired at 6;0, while those with /l/ were acquired between the ages of 6;6 and 7;0., Conclusions & Implications: This study presented acquisition for consonants in BP and can be used as a reference for the assessment of developmental speech disorders. In this study, stops and nasals were acquired first, followed by fricatives and, lastly, liquids. This finding is corroborated by previous studies in BP and other languages., What This Paper Adds: What is already known on the subject What this paper adds to existing knowledge What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?, (© 2021 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.)

This article stems from an interest taken in discussing the usage of the terms ambivalence and ambiguity, which are very present in Psychology's publications and savoir faire. It is important to reiterate that in common sense and even in scientific publications these terms are often used as synonyms or notions of little conceptual delimitation. The relevance of such differentiation is proposed once these notions participates of the emergence of the new in human subjective experience, and, in a methodological approach, ambiguity and ambivalence are dimensions that leads the researcher goes beyond a repetitive sterile description of the subject's speech, moving towards new perspectives of the psychological data. This paper aims to retrieve the qualifying power of such notions by making a broader reflection on the functions of language in the production of interpretive realities. We also propose to bring up a reflection about ambiguity in the construction of meaning and to reiterate ambivalences as inherent to human nature, its affective record and the process of human becoming. As a way to explain the proposed themes, we will analyse an excerpt from the documentary "Últimas Conversas", produced by the Brazilian filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho, in which high school students from public state schools in Rio de Janeiro tell their stories, speaking of dreams and shared challenges. The character Rafaela was selected for this article because of the emergence of unspeakable emotions from her narrative about an expected future as a promise of reconciliation with the alterity of her life story.

In this paper, we discuss the colonialities of language discussed by undergraduate students of Letras: Inglês. The problematizations are based on experiences reported by the students focusing on two themes: the effects of coloniality in the construction of the Portuguese language in Brazil and in the Letras course. We structure our argument on the decolonial thought and on the idea that languages are inventions with real effects in language tests, migration, textbooks, and language teaching. The empirical material was generated in a critical language teacher education experience, and we use classroom interactions and answers from a written test in order to support our discussion. As for the invention of language, the reflections showcase the maintenance of the colonial epistemology, since the relation between language and subalternity is preserved. As for the Letras course, the discussions revealed contradictions. On the one hand, debates that promote language diversity were promoted, but on the other hand, when it comes to assessment only hegemonic forms were considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The influence of education on cognition has been extensively researched, particularly in countries with high levels of illiteracy. However, the impact of low education in all cognitive functions appears to differ. Regarding to language, the effects of education on many linguistic tasks—supported by different processing—remain unclear. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether oral language task performance differs among individuals with no formal and low-educated subjects, as measured by the Brazilian Montreal-Toulouse Language Assessment Battery (MTL-BR). This is the only language battery available for use in Brazil, but lacks normative data for illiterate individuals. The secondary objective was to gather data for use as clinical parameters in assessing persons with aphasia (PWA) not exposed to a formal education. Methods: A total of 30 healthy illiterate individuals aged 34–60 years were assessed. All participants underwent the MTL-BR Battery, excluding its written communication tasks. The data obtained in the present study were compared against results of a previous investigation of individuals with 1–4 years of education evaluated using the same MTL-BR instrument. Results: Statistically significant differences in performance were found between non-formal education and the low-educated (2–4 years) groups on the tasks Auditory Comprehension, Repetition, Orthographic/Phonological Fluency, Number dictation, Reading of numbers and also on simple numerical calculations. Conclusion: The study results showed that individuals with no formal education/illiterate had worse performance than low-education individuals on some of the language tasks of the MTL-Br Battery, suggesting that each year of education impacts cognitive-language performance. Also, data were obtained which can serve as a guide for PWA not exposed to a formal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]