The realization of pronominal subjects and objects in uruguayan portuguese

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to describe the realization of pronominal subjects and objects in Uruguayan Portuguese (UP) in an oral corpus. While Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has around 80% of overt pronominal subjects, UP has only 50%. The 1st person singular is mostly overt, while the 1st person plural is mostly null. Objects can be clitics (including 3rd person), null or strong pronouns. Clitic placement involves clitics categorically preceding inflected and gerund verbs and following infinitives and imperatives, as well as clitic climbing and clitic doubling. Anaphoric objects can be null or resumed by clitics or strong pronouns, depending on the semantic features of the antecedent. Both in subject and object positions, strong 3rd person pronouns can occur only with human antecedents. Data confirm the existence of significant syntactic differences between UP and BP.

Keywords

• Português uruguaio
• Sujeito pronominal
• Objeto pronominal