Order of temporal adverbials in Portuguese and French: discourse motivations

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to bring evidence to the hypothesis that discursive-functional motivations operate independently of structural constraints of languages. This hypothesis is verified by a comparative analysis of the different positions occupied by temporal adverbials in written texts of contemporary Portuguese and French. From data collected in news and editorials published in Brazilian and French newspapers, we show that, in spite of the flexibility of these constituents in both languages, they are placed mainly in the right and left peripheries of the clause.  Focusing more specifically on these two positions, we analyze the influence of the syntactic constraint related to the filling of the subject position as well the function performed by the adverbial constituent in the textual organization. The findings point out that the occurrence of temporal adverbials in the left margin of the clause both in Portuguese and French cannot be explained by the structural difference between the two languages. We show, on the other hand, the strong correlation between the function and the order of these constituents. Temporal adverbials operating in the segmentation of subtopics, introducing new temporal frames, are placed on the left periphery of the clause, in both languages. Those adverbials that introduce temporal coordinates more restricted to the prediction are likely to occupy the right margin. Despite some differences between the two languages, this systematicity allows us to conclude that discursive-textual motivations are general and more accurate explanations for the variability in word order.