557 Alfa, São Paulo, 59 (3): 557-588, 2015 “SÓ”, “EXCLUSIVAMENTE” AND THEIR POSITIONS IN THE SENTENCE Aquiles Tescari NETO * • ABSTRACT: In this paper, I examine some properties of higher and lower adverbs to suggest that the focusing só ‘only’ belongs to the irst group. I argue that the behavior of exclusive só in Brazilian Portuguese is better explained on syntactic grounds, i.e. in terms of its position in the universal hierarchy. The key to arrive at this conclusion comes from the distribution of the focusing exclusivamente ‘exclusively’ which is also an exclusive adverb but behaves differently from só with respect to some syntactic properties which discriminate between lower and higher adverbs. I will show that Bever and Clark’s (2008) predictions that Semantics would be responsible for the asymmetries between quantiicational adverbs and the exclusive só is not accurate inasmuch as exclusive exclusivamente ‘exclusively’, in Brazilian Portuguese, goes together with quantiicational adverbs as far as some syntactic properties are examined. • KEYWORDS: Focusing adverbs. Exclusive adverbs. Quantiicational adverbs. Functional hierarchy. Cartography. Generative Syntax. Introduction Kayne’s (2005) “One Feature, One Head Principle” undoubtedly became one of the fundamental tenets of the cartographic endeavor in syntax. This principle captures the initial idea which has motivated cartographic studies in the Principles and Parameters theory from its irst works in the nineties (CINQUE, 1994, 1995, [and especially] 1999; RIZZI, 1997): the assumption that the atoms of syntax should not be reduced to words or morphemes that generativists were used to representing in syntactic trees (e.g. vP, IP/TP, CP, etc. for the sentence; and DP for the nominal expression). The cartography project has shown that the IP/TP would actually consist of approximately 40 functional projections; and the CP zone would be formed by almost ifteen functional projections. Abney’s (1986), Szabolcsi’s (1987), Pollock’s (1989) and Beghelli and Stowell’s (1997) works should also be recognized as the major precursors of the cartography enterprise in Syntax. These works paved the way for the investigation of the small-forming units of syntactic structures and their main phrases. * UFRJ – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Faculdade de Letras. Rio de Janeiro – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil. 21941-917 – aquilestescari@yahoo.it. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1981-5794-1509-7