Null subjects and null objects in Brazilian Portuguese

correlations and change

Abstract

Pronominal and null subjects and anaphoric direct objects are amongst the main grammatical phenomena that differentiate Brazilian and European varieties of Portuguese (cf. CYRINO; MATOS, 2016; DUARTE; FIGUEIREDO SILVA, 2016). In Brazilian Portuguese (BP), clauses with overt referential pronominal subjects are preferred over clauses with null subjects – which are restricted to some contexts (cf. AYRES, 2021, DUARTE; REIS, 2018); on the other hand, clauses with null anaphoric direct objects, especially 3rd person direct objects, are preferred over clauses with pronominal direct object (cf. CYRINO, 1993, 1997). The literature relating both phenomena in the history of BP shows that there has been a change in the following direction: null objects and overt pronominal subjects have had an increased frequency throughout the last centuries. Here we argue for a relation connecting both phenomena in BP: both are sensitive to the semantic gender of the referent when it comes to 3rd person pronoun realization. We support our hypothesis by bringing data from our previous work and work from colleagues. We also argue for a crucial difference between both phenomena: even though null objects are stabilized in BP grammar, we present empirical data that show evidence for change in apparent time in 3rd person pronominal subjects. We have collected and analyzed data from a contemporary oral corpus (LínguaPOA) and here we show that (i) the asymmetry between 1st and 2nd person subjects on the one hand and 3rd person subjects on the other no longer exists; (ii) 1st and 2nd person null subjects are a stabilized grammatical phenomenon; and (iii) 3rd person null subjects are still changing.