Order of the subject and placement of lithics in Brazilian writing of the 19th and 20th centuries: reflections of the grammar of the Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

In the disciplinary field of diachronic syntax, we analyze, in this article, the change in the order of the subject and the placement of critics in matrix sentences in neutral contexts ([XP])[XP]V in texts of Brazilian newspapers from different states and in personal letters written by Brazilians during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The main objective is to present empirical evidence that justifies the same microparametric change in the grammar of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) correlated to the evolution of two phenomena described above: (1) the stiffening of the Subject-Verb order in transitive structures and (2) the increase of proclisis in neutral contexts [(XP)XP-cl-Verbo]. We defend the hypothesis that the proclisis generated by the BP grammar in the context [XP]V appears with more robustness only in Brazilian 19^th century texts of the second half of the 20^th century, moment in which reflections of an SV-type grammar are also expressively revealed in these same texts. We evidence that the writing of the first half of the 19^th century still reflects properties of a V2-type grammar, such as Classical Portuguese (PCl). The results presented show different linguistic and non-linguistic (diatopic) forces acting in the conditioning of proclisis in a neutral environment ([XP])[XP]V that seem to validate the hypothesis investigated: in texts from the first half of the 19^th century, the forces of a conservative grammar with null subjects and with properties of a V2-type language in which any constituent, including the subject, can be in an anterior and contiguous position to the verb, such as PCl; in texts from the second half of the 19^th century and the 20^th century, the forces of a SV-type language, such as PB, also act.