NOTES ON THE SEMANTICS OF ‘AMBOS’ IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the semantic behavior of the expression ‘ambos’ in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), to test the traditional grammatical classification of this item as a numeral. To this end, we propose a detailed analysis of the functioning of the expression in the nominal domain, demonstrating that it (i) can modify different entities in this domain, (ii) (re)enforces a distributive reading in sentences where it occurs and (iii) does not behave as a numeral, but rather as a dual definite description. Furthermore, we also present a logical formalization for the expression. The final step of our study will present, albeit superficially, how ‘ambos’ works in the verbal domain, showing that, just as in the nominal domain, the expression behavior differs from what is expected of a numeral.