Identifying the sources of syntactic variation in Old Portuguese texts
Esther Rinke (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
It has early been noticed in studies on Old Portuguese (OP) that the syntax of the medieval
language is more flexible than that of modern Portuguese, especially with respect to word
order (Nunes 1906). Syntactic variation in OP concerns subject placement in declarative
clauses (Ribeiro 1995, Fieis 2003, Rinke 2007, 2009), clitic placement in main clauses
(Martins 1994), optional interpolation in subordinate clauses (Martins 2002), object
placement in infinitival constructions (Rinke 2008) and article realization in argument
positions. This variability has been interpreted as evidence of competing grammatical systems
that indicate ongoing grammatical change (e.g. the loss of a verb second grammar or the
change from a (Latin)OV to a (Romance)VO grammar).
In my talk, it will be shown that the syntactic variation in OP only partly reflects ongoing
syntactic change. I will focus on two phenomena: a) subject placement in declarative
sentences and b) the realization/omission of determiners in argument positions. I will show
that only the second phenomenon reveals grammatical change in progress whereas subject
placement in declarative sentences is determined by pragmatic factors only.
With respect to word order variation, I will argue that apparent verb second structures do not
indicate a change from a V2 to a non-V2 grammar (Fieis 2003, Rinke 2007, 2009). The
evidence of a verb second grammar in OP and of syntactic change is not conclusive because
every single word order option in the medieval texts can also be generated by the grammar of
modern European Portuguese. As in the modern language, subject inversion and the preposing
of constituents are information structurally conditioned. Additional evidence against verb
movement to the left periphery comes from clitic placement and interpolation structures in
OP, as shown by Martins (2002, 2012). I will conclude that the syntactic flexibility of
medieval texts can only be attributed to ongoing syntactic change when the empirical data
unambiguously shows this and only if the attested variation cannot be accounted for by
alternative explanations.
The second case study shows that OP omits articles in contexts where the modern language
requires the realization of determiners (e.g. generic noun phrases, proper names, singular
count nouns in subject position (1)).
(1)
costume
é (que) m(er)cador q(ue) alugar casa na
vila & uezj~dade
custom (law) is (that) merchant that rent house in-the town and vicinity
q(u)is(er) fazer de soldada ...
(Costumes de Santarém)
want
do give reward ...
In modern Portuguese, examples like (1) are not grammatical because the D-head generally
requires-PF realization in (ungoverned) argument positions. I will argue that the variability of
article use in OP follows from a different feature specification of the DP: [+specific] D-heads
require PF-realization whereas [-specific] D-heads allow for pragmatically conditioned
variation. This system, which is different from both Latin and modern Portuguese, represents
an intermediate step in the evolution of the Portuguese DP and therefore reflects ongoing
syntactic change. If this analysis is on the right track it shows that change in progress does not
necessarily involve competing grammatical systems.
References:
Fiéis, A. (2003) Ordem de Palavras, Transitividade e Inacusatividade. Reflexão Teórica e
Análise do Português dos Séculos XIII a XVI, PhD Dissertation, Universidade Nova de
Lisboa.
Martins, A. M. (1994): Cliticos na História do Português, Lissabon: Universidade de Lisboa
(dissertation).
Martins, A. M. (2002): „The loss of IP-Scambling in Portuguese: Clause structure, word order
variation and change”, In: Lightfoot, D. (Hrsg.): Syntactic Effects of Morphological
Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 232-248.
Martins, A.M. (2012): “Issues In Word Order Change in Portuguese and Beyond”, talk
presented at the 2nd Cambridge Colloquium on Histories of the Ibero-Romance
Languages, 28th-30th March 2012, Norman MacColl Symposium 2012, University of
Cambridge.
Nunes, J. J. (1906): Crestomatia arcaica. Excertos da Literatura Portuguesa. Desde o que de
mais antigo se conhece até ao século XVI. Acompanhados de introdução gramatical,
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(1921), Rio de Janeiro: Compania editora americana, livraria Francisco Alves.
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Die Entwicklung der Wortstellung im Portugiesischen, Frankfurt am Main/ Madrid:
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Rinke, E. (2008): “OV-VO-Variation im Portugiesischen. Eine diachronische Analyse der
Infinitivkomplemente kausativer Verben”. In: E. M. Remberger & G. Mensching
(Hsg.) Romanistische Syntax – minimalistisch. Tübingen: Narr.
Rinke, E. (2009): "Verb-placement in Old Portuguese", In: Jacob, Daniel & Andreas Dufter
(Hsg.): Focus and Background in Romance Languages (Studies in Language
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