A brief syntactic-formal study on the basic structure of the sentence in Portuguese

Abstract

We study the syntactic structure of the sentence in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), in its canonical order, SVO. We formulate categorial phrase structure rewrite rules of the sentence, using standard X-bar theory. We analyze complex sentences, including embedded sentences and sentences with two or more verbs (complex predicate sentences and structures with auxiliary verbs). We formulate grammar rules to describe the structure of the sentence in Portuguese and present a formal grammar for the sentences in Portuguese.