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Part of
Studies in Historical Ibero-Romance Morpho-Syntax
Edited by Miriam Bouzouita, Ioanna Sitaridou and Enrique Pato
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 16] 2018
► pp. 149–172

Chapter 7
Postverbal subjects of unaccusative verbs in the history of Portuguese

| ILOS/ISWOC, University of Oslo
In this paper, I trace a word order change from Old Portuguese (OP) to Modern European Portuguese (MEP) that affected subjects of unaccusative verbs and argue that these subjects lost their object-like position along two different paths: subjects that contain old information follow the same development as subjects of transitive verbs, while new information subjects develop independently. In OP they retained more of their object-like properties, while MEP subjects of unaccusatives pattern more closely with subjects of transitive verbs.
Keywords: unaccusative, information structure, word order, Portuguese, subject, postverbal, transitive, inergative, new information, old information
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical assumptions
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Previous descriptions of Portuguese historical syntax
  • 5.Subject and object positions in the history of Portuguese
    • 5.1Subject positions with transitive and inergative verbs
    • 5.2Postverbal object positions with transitive verbs
    • 5.3Subject order with unaccusative verbs
  • 6.Statistical analysis
  • 7.Summary and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.16.07eid
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Corpus

Texts from the CIPM (Corpus Informatizado do Português Medieval):

13th century: Afonso X (parts), Foro Real; Documentos Notariais HGP102, 105, 107, 108, 139, 140, CHP 012, 013, 016, 020, 031, 033, 035, 038, 042, 043, 044, 047, 057, 058, 064, 067, CA 002, 031.

13th/14th century: Vidas de Santos de um Manuscrito Alcobacense.

14th century: Crónica geral de Espanha (parte 1, 1–13).

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Texts from the Tycho Brahe Parsed Corpus of Historical Portuguese:

D. João III, Cartas; Diogo do Couto, Décadas, Quinta Decada, Livro oitavo, cap. 9, Livro décimo, cap. 11; Frei Luis de Sousa, A Vida de D. Frei Bertolameu dos Mártires, Livro I, cap. I–XIV; João de Barros, Gramática da língua portuguesa (from the beginning of the text until the use of tilde.); Fernão Mendes Pinto, Perigrinação, cap. I–XIV; Francisco de Holanda, Da Pintura Antiga, cap. I–XXIII; Manuel Pires de Almeida, Poesia e pintura; Manuel da Costa, Arte de Furtar; António Brandão, Monarchia Lusitana, Livro X, cap. I–IV; F. Rodrigues Lobo, Corte na Aldeia, Diálogo I + II; Manuel Severim de Faria, Discursos vários políticos, Carta ao leitor, Discurso primeiro; Manuel de Galhegos, Gazeta, Novembro-Dezembro 1941; António Vieira, cartas, II–IV, VIII–XI; António Vieira, Sermão, Primeira Dominga do Advento Prégado na Capella Real, 1652, I–IV; F. Manuel De Melo, Cartas Familiares, 6–16; F. Manuel de Melo, Tácito Português, Livro segundo; António das Chagas, Cartas Espirituais, 1–9; Marquesa de Alorna, Cartas e outros Escritos; José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa, 6 Entremezes de Cordel; Correia Garção, Dissertações, 1–3, Oração Quarta; Almeida Garrett, Viagens na minha terra, cap. I–VII, cartas 1–41; Matias Aires, Reflexão sobre a vaidade dos Homens, cap. 1–50; António da Costa, cartas I–V; Cavaleiro de Oliveira, cartas 1–4; Diogo Ignácio de Pina Manique, Pina Manique e a Universidade de Coimbra; Cartas do Intendente e de José Rodrigues Lisboa para o Doutor Francisco Montanha (seleção e notas de Lígia Cruz), cartas 1–19; Ramalho Ortigão, Cartas a Emília, I–XIV; Marquês da Fronteira e d’Alorna, Memórias do Marquês da Fronteira e d’Alorna, Parte Primeira, 1802 a 1818, cap. I–II; Camilo Castelo Branco, Amor de Perdição, cap. I–V; Camilo Castelo Branco, Maria Moisés (Biblioteca Virtual de Autores Portugueses); J. M. Eça de Queiroz & J. P. Oliveira Martins, Correspondência (Texto introdutório de Paulo Franchetti. Fixação do texto, notas e comentários de Beatriz Berrini), Campinas, Editora da Unicamp, 1995, carta 1–21.

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Additional literary texts from 19th and 20th centuries:

19th century: Abel Botelho, O barão de Lavos; Fialho de Almeida, Contos; Raúl Brandão, Os pescadores; Raúl Brandão, Os pobres; Júlio Dantas, Os serenins de Queluz; Almada Negreiros, O Cágado; Almada Negreiros, Direcção Única; Florbela Espanca, A paixão de Manuel Garcia; Mário de Sá-Carneiro, A confissão de Lúcio; Jaime Cortesão, As memórias da grande Guerra.

20th century: Manuel Alegre, Rosas vermelhas; António Arnaut, Os dois barbeiros; Maria Ondina Braga, Carta de amor; José Viale Moutinho, Lucas depois do credo; Fernando Namora, A mulher afogada; Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, Dias coloridos; Miguel Torga, O Leproso; Francisco José Viegas, Troca de correspondência; Lídia Jorge, António; Maria Judite de Carvalho, O diário de saudade; Maria Isabel Barreno, A solução.

Newspaper O Público Digital: O Público online, 28 de Junho de 1999, 13 de Agosto de 1997, 12 de Agosto 1997, & 7 de Abril de 1997.

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Elvira, Javier
2018. Chapter 5. Stylistic fronting in Old Spanish texts. In Studies in Historical Ibero-Romance Morpho-Syntax [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 16], ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Schulte, Kim
2018. Chapter 8. On the position of overt subjects in infinitival clauses in Spanish and Portuguese. In Studies in Historical Ibero-Romance Morpho-Syntax [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 16], ► pp. 173 ff. DOI logo

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