Chapter 11
Agreement in Portuguese
Contributions from a research project
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.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Agreement and characterizing varieties of Portuguese
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2.Theory and methodology
- 3.Marks of nominal and verbal agreement in BP and EP: Different rules
- 3.1Plural agreement within the Noun Phrase (NP)
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3.2Third person plural verbal agreement
- 3.3First person plural agreement: A gente and nós
- 3.3.1Verbal agreement: A gente and nós
- 3.3.2Nominal agreement in predicative structures with a gente
- 3.4Comparing varieties of Portuguese: The status of the rules
- 4.From rule status to a characterization of BP and EP: Some speculations
- 5.Final remarks
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Notes
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References