Edited by Pilar P. Barbosa, Maria da Conceição de Paiva and Celeste Rodrigues
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 14] 2017
► pp. 257–278
The purpose of this chapter is to relate the status of linguistic rules (Labov, 2003) and the characterization of varieties/languages. Based on the assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics, patterns of nominal and verbal number agreement in European and Brazilian Portuguese are described. In order to bring evidence to support the analysis, we present quantitative and qualitative characterization of data. Results from recent investigations (Mota & Vieira, 2013) allow us to outline clear differences between Brazilian and European patterns. Defining the typology of rules – variable, semi-categorical, categorical – can serve to evaluate typological profiles for several grammatical phenomena and it is a strong methodological procedure to distinguish what is apparently variable and what actually constitutes a general trend or default option.