Verb Movement and Clitics: Variation and Change in Portuguese

Abstract

Abstract This chapter attempts to explain certain robust aspects of (diachronic) syntactic variation in Portuguese, focusing specifically on Brazilian Portuguese (BP), especially regarding verb movement and clitic placement. Analysing these phenomena is especially relevant for the evaluation of theories of diachronic and parametric syntactic variation in Romance and other languages. The chapter is organized as follows. First, it summarizes a possible analysis of the properties that distinguish different Romance languages regarding the placement of clitics. Second, it argues that BP lost V movement to a position higher than the inflectional head. It shows that the loss of V movement in BP had different consequences in BP, especially in the placement of clitics. The chapter addresses the question of possible triggers for the kinds of change that took place in BP. It concludes by discussing other aspects of the change in clitic placement that took place in BP.