3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese
This paper addresses some comparative aspects of the 3rd person possessive pronouns seu and dele in Modern Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Old Portuguese (OP). Following Müller (1997) and Menuzzi (1999, 2003) we propose that the BP pronominal system is undergoing some change which made seu become disf...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade de São Paulo
2014-02-01
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| Series: | Filologia e Linguística Portuguesa |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/view/88403 |
| _version_ | 1818146231072849920 |
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| author | Maria Aparecida Torres Morais Ilza Ribeiro |
| author_facet | Maria Aparecida Torres Morais Ilza Ribeiro |
| author_sort | Maria Aparecida Torres Morais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper addresses some comparative aspects of the 3rd person possessive pronouns seu and dele in Modern Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Old Portuguese (OP). Following Müller (1997) and Menuzzi (1999, 2003) we propose that the BP pronominal system is undergoing some change which made seu become disfavored as an anaphoric form for 3rd person referential antecedents. The generalization has a ramification for the fact that the form dele is the possessive for 3rd person. We also assume Menuzzi’s ideia that the restriction on 3rd person referential antecedents follows from a syntactic condition on anaphoric dependencies, the Chain Condition, which applies to sentential anaphora because it is the way syntax interprets Accessibility Principles, which govern discourse anaphora. In OP, however, the form seu is strongly preferred as a 3rd person possessive pronoun. In these terms, it can take referential antecedents and also be bound by quantified antecedents. We assume that the morphosyntactic properties that differentiated the two forms, seu and dele, mainly gender and number, were crucial to the historical development of the Portuguese language. Other archaic possessive strategies as the dative clitics lhe/lhes~lhi/lhis and the construction seu…dele are also discussed as evidence for dele as a possessive form. We concluded the paper with some suggestions about the cause of the diachronic reanalysis that affected the 3rd person possessive system in the history of BP. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:16:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-748d898d9ee3455d9ef2956ce4fcd8c9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1517-4530 2176-9419 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:16:04Z |
| publishDate | 2014-02-01 |
| publisher | Universidade de São Paulo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Filologia e Linguística Portuguesa |
| spelling | doaj.art-748d898d9ee3455d9ef2956ce4fcd8c92022-12-22T01:07:39ZengUniversidade de São PauloFilologia e Linguística Portuguesa1517-45302176-94192014-02-0116spe1551http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/issn.2176-9419.v16ispep15-51831963rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian PortugueseMaria Aparecida Torres Morais 0Ilza Ribeiro 1Universidade de São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal da Bahia, BrazilThis paper addresses some comparative aspects of the 3rd person possessive pronouns seu and dele in Modern Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Old Portuguese (OP). Following Müller (1997) and Menuzzi (1999, 2003) we propose that the BP pronominal system is undergoing some change which made seu become disfavored as an anaphoric form for 3rd person referential antecedents. The generalization has a ramification for the fact that the form dele is the possessive for 3rd person. We also assume Menuzzi’s ideia that the restriction on 3rd person referential antecedents follows from a syntactic condition on anaphoric dependencies, the Chain Condition, which applies to sentential anaphora because it is the way syntax interprets Accessibility Principles, which govern discourse anaphora. In OP, however, the form seu is strongly preferred as a 3rd person possessive pronoun. In these terms, it can take referential antecedents and also be bound by quantified antecedents. We assume that the morphosyntactic properties that differentiated the two forms, seu and dele, mainly gender and number, were crucial to the historical development of the Portuguese language. Other archaic possessive strategies as the dative clitics lhe/lhes~lhi/lhis and the construction seu…dele are also discussed as evidence for dele as a possessive form. We concluded the paper with some suggestions about the cause of the diachronic reanalysis that affected the 3rd person possessive system in the history of BP.http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/view/88403PossessivesBrazilian PortugueseOld PortuguesePronominal system |
| spellingShingle | Maria Aparecida Torres Morais Ilza Ribeiro 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese Filologia e Linguística Portuguesa Possessives Brazilian Portuguese Old Portuguese Pronominal system |
| title | 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese |
| title_full | 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese |
| title_fullStr | 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese |
| title_full_unstemmed | 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese |
| title_short | 3rd person possessives: Old Portuguese and Modern Brazilian Portuguese |
| title_sort | 3rd person possessives old portuguese and modern brazilian portuguese |
| topic | Possessives Brazilian Portuguese Old Portuguese Pronominal system |
| url | http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/view/88403 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mariaaparecidatorresmorais 3rdpersonpossessivesoldportugueseandmodernbrazilianportuguese AT ilzaribeiro 3rdpersonpossessivesoldportugueseandmodernbrazilianportuguese |