Null subjects and agreement marks in European and Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relation between the presence of agreement marks and null subjects in contemporary European and Brazilian Portuguese based on very recent samples of speech collected in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. In order to bring additional evidence to support the analysis, we will briefly review the issues involving the Null Subject in Romance Languages and some diachronic and synchronic analyses which distinguish Brazilian and European Portuguese as far as null subjects are concerned. We will finally show that recent samples of spoken European and Brazilian Portuguese confirm the stability of EP as a null subject language and the change affecting referential subjects in BP.