As interrogativas-Q em peças portuguesas: uma análise da ordem VS/SV em comparação com peças brasileiras

Abstract

In the light of the Principles and Parameters model (Chomsky,1995), I present a diachronic study of the VS/SV order in Q-Q interrogatives based on a sample of Portuguese plays (19th and 20th centuries), which allows a comparison with the results obtained for the same phenomenon in PB (Duarte, 1992; Pinheiro and Marins, 2012) from a similar sample. Taking into account recent descriptions, I assume that the grammar of the PE would show the active VS order and SV conditioned to the presence of cleavage. In addition, the subjects of 1st.and 2ª. people, and the anaphic ones of 3ª, would be preferentially null. Thus order and representation of the pronominal subject would be related. The results, in light of the Grammar Competition Model (Kroch, 1989,2001), indicate a competition that begins, in fact, with the entry of the cleavage, which causes the increase in the SV indexes from the 1950s. Interrogatives with null subject are, however, predominant and occur equally with cleavage. In view of the evidence of an increase in SV order in the EP, which does not coincide with the descriptions, a parallel investigation was carried out with separate speech data in two periods (years 1970 and 2000) in order to verify if the spoken language follows the descriptions.This study showed that contemporary EP prefers the Q-interrogative cleaved with null subject and cleaved with SV, patterns that are not in the literature, which presents only QVS as the basic order. Comparisons with PB, in a synchronic and diachronic sample, confirm that we are dealing with different grammars. PB, from 1937 onwards, prefers SV order regardless of cleavage, which coincides with the reduction of null subjects. The results show that PB evolved to a grammar of expressed subjects and QSV order, whereas the EP presents a system with cleaved interrogatives and Q (S) V order.