Ter/Haver-Constructions and Verbal Agreement

Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold: (i) to analyze the use of the verbs ter and haver in the history of Portuguese and, more specifically, in a recent stage of Brazilian Portuguese, in which the possessive ter is used as an existential verb; and (ii) to discuss some properties involving ter and haver in possessive and existential domains, in both European and Brazilian Portuguese, pointing to the possibility of verbal agreement with ter/haver-existential constructions. Exploring results from previous analyses it is shown that some properties of existential constructions, in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, can derive from changes involving subject position, related to the weakening of flectional paradigm.