Equating the effect of position on the variation of the nominal number agreement

Abstract

The variation in nominal number agreement is one of the aspects of Brazilian Portuguese morphosyntax most studied by Sociolinguistics. Since the first studies, in the 1970s, the nature and the position of the constituent in the noun phrase have been considered the main structural constraints of the phenomenon. In an analysis that became a landmark in the field, Scherre (1988) concluded that the non-nuclear elements on the left of the head are more marked than the elements on the right and that the head in the 1st position is more marked than in the other positions. Since then, the variationist analysis have repeated this scheme, coming to the same conclusions essentially. Based on a variationist analysis of the phenomenon in a sample of vernacular speech of rural Portuguese in the mountain region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, this article will seek to advance in facing the issue, reinforcing generalizations that were diluted in Scherre’s scheme, especially that the number is marked almost categorically in the 1st position of the NP, and illuminating details that have become obscure, such as how the plural marking is done when the NP has two determinants before the head and how is the modifier after the head marked when it is not adjacent to the NP head.