Introducing indirect arguments: the locus of diachronic change in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to propose an explanation for ditransitive constructions in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) taking into consideration a change in the realization of its prepositional phrase. Since the 19th century, BP has initiated a reanalysis of the possible strategies to head indirect arguments by generalizing the use of the prepositions ‘a’(to) and ‘para’ (to) in the context of ditransitive sentences. Alongside with this change, the morphological notation for the dative argument – the 3rd person clitic ‘lhe(s)’ – was also replaced by other strategies, such as 3rd person pronouns preceded by full prepositions – ‘para/a ele(s),ela(s)’ (to him, her, them). Therefore, I assume that these facts are evidence that BP has shifted from the type of language with morphological dative case to one with only structural oblique Case.