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In:The Determinants of Diachronic Stability
Edited by Anne Breitbarth, Miriam Bouzouita, Lieven Danckaert and Melissa Farasyn
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 254] 2019
► pp. 191–214

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Chapter 8
Competition, stability and change in the emergence of Brazilian Portuguese

 | IEL-Unicamp, Campinas
Published online: 20 March 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.254.08gal
Abstract
This chapter discusses morphological variation in Brazilian Portuguese, namely the clitic/tonic pronoun alternation and the variation in the morphological realization of subject-verb agreement. We argue on diachronic and synchronic grounds that while the alternation between the clitic and tonic pronoun in the 3rd person is clearly a case of competition between the conservative European grammar and the innovative Brazilian grammar, the other cases of variation are produced by the latter. Both in the case of 1st and 2nd person clitics and in the case of verbal agreement, conservative forms have innovative uses. This supports the claim that they have been reanalyzed in the new system. Clitic doubling of tonic pronouns without a preposition suggests that there was a functional specialization of the 1st and 2nd person clitic forms. As for subject-verb agreement, the licensing and interpretation of null subjects shows that the inflection is too weak to referentially identify empty categories in subject position, even when person and number are overtly realized on the verb. We conclude that part of the morphological variation due to linguistic contact is indeed integrated to the innovative grammar, with morphological elements of the old grammar surviving in apparent, but not actual, competition with new forms.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Structural innovations in Brazilian Portuguese due to contact
    • 2.1The morphosyntax of subjects
    • 2.2The morphosyntax of pronouns
      • 2.2.1The reduction of case marking
      • 2.2.2The change in clitic position
  • 3.Morphological stability under norm pressure and beyond
    • 3.1Clitics in the history of Brazilian Portuguese: A non-homogeneous evolution
    • 3.2Morphological doublets in a single grammar – evidence for specialization
    • 3.3Consequences for the diachronic interpretation of the variation and change
    • 3.4Coming back to Subject-Verb agreement
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
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