Null subject and pronominal subject: diachronic study in brazilian and portuguese letters from the 17th century to 20th centuries

Author(s)

Isabella Spatti Cândido

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2024-08-30

Examining board members

Charlotte Galves; Maria Eugenia Lammoglia Duarte; Aline Peixoto Gravina

• Advisor: Charlotte Galves

Abstract

This work investigates null subjects and its variation with pronominal subjects in the diachrony of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and European Portuguese (EP), using generative grammar as a theoretical basis. The corpus of analysis consists of Portuguese letters from authors born from the 17th to the 19th century, Brazilian letters from the 17th to the 20th centuries, as well as Brazilian minutes written by authors born in the 18th century. The analysis of the 17th and 18th centuries is justified by works such as Coroa (2021,2022) which note that signs of a Brazilian grammar seem to emerge before the 19th century. Using authors like Figueiredo Silva (1996,2000), Modesto (2000), Ferreira (2009), Kato, Martins and Nunes (2023), the contexts where a constraint to null subjects exists in Brazilian Portuguese were investigated. The results demonstrated that Portuguese letters present a high frequency of null subjects in all centuries. Brazilian letters present high frequencies of null subjects in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, mainly in the 1st person and 3rd person. In letters from the beginning of the 20th century, it is possible to observe a turning point. In the 20th century, null subjects have a high percentage, but signs of grammar competition can be observed (Kroch, 1989, 1994) which indicate that BP is no longer a consistent null subject language like EP (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 22/02528-1 - NULL SUBJECT AND PRONOMINAL SUBJECT: DIACHRONIC STUDY IN BRAZILIAN AND PORTUGUESE LETTERS OF THE 17TH TO 20TH CENTURIES.
• Grantee: Isabella Spatti Candido
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master