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In:Null Objects from a Cross-Linguistic and Developmental Perspective
Edited by Pilar Barbosa and Cristina Flores
[Language Faculty and Beyond 19] 2025
► pp. 141–170

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Animacy and schooling in the production of null objects and accusative clitics in the acquisition of two varieties of Portuguese

 | Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
 | Universidade Nova de Lisboa
 | Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
Published online: 15 April 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.19.06lir
Abstract
This study investigates the encoding of 3rd person co-referential direct objects in Brazilian (BP) and European (EP) varieties of Portuguese. Both varieties admit null objects, though they differ regarding the productivity of the accusative clitic — highly productive in EP; overridden by the strong pronoun in oral, informal BP. The implications of the type of pronominal direct object in each variety for the effect of animacy and the syntactic restrictions applying to the null object are considered, with the strong pronoun favouring [+ animate] antecedents. Our study reports an elicited production experiment, which was conducted with BP and EP-speaking pre-schoolers and schoolchildren. Adult speakers of each variety were presented with the same task in the oral and the written modalities. The results demonstrate differential sensitivity to animacy and syntactic context in the two varieties, with a stronger effect of schooling in BP, due to the late incorporation of the 3rd person accusative clitic.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Differences in the pronominal systems of Brazilian and European Portuguese
  • 2.An experimental investigation with BP-speaking children, adolescents and adults
    • 2.1Method
      • 2.1.1Participants
      • 2.1.2Material and procedures
    • 2.2Results
    • 2.3Discussion
  • 3.Experiment with EP-speaking children and adolescents
    • 3.1Method
      • 3.1.1Participants
      • 3.1.2Material and procedures
    • 3.2Results
    • 3.3Discussion
  • 4.Comparing null forms and clitics in BP and EP
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
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