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AUTHOR Callou, Dinah TITLE Ter/Haver-Existential Clauses in Brazilian Portuguese: Variation and Change. PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 10p. PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) LANGUAGE English, Portuguese EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Diachronic Linguistics; Dialects; English; Foreign Countries; French; *Grammar; Language Variation; *Portuguese; Pronunciation; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; *Sentence Structure; Uncommonly Taught Languages; *Verbs IDENTIFIERS *Brazil; *Portuguese (Brazilian)

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the details of existential sentences constructed with the Portuguese verbs "ter" and "haver" in the interpersonal form. The uses of these verbs are discussed and analyzed in detail. The history and evolution of linguistic changes in Brazilian Portuguese are discussed in an attempt to detect historical social and cultural factors responsible for the variation in existential sentences. (Contains 15 references.) (KFT)

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Ter/haver-existential clauses in Brazilian Portuguese: variation ad changei

Dinah Callon (UFRJ/CNN-Brazil)

1.Introduction Generally, the label "existential sentence" denotes the there is/are constructions and its equivalents in other languages. In this paper, I shall reserve the term existential sentences to designate sentences constructed with the verbs ter e haver in the impersonal form, as in example (1): (1) lici/Tem muitas ra.thes para agir assim ("There are many reasons to act like this") There is a certain amount of cross-linguistic variation as regards the verb appearing in central existential constructions. Many languages, like English, use the copula be (there is/are); some, like French (il y a)-- and contemporary Brazilian Portuguese (tern)-- as well, use have. Quirk et alii (1972), in A grammar of eontemporaly English, discuss a less common type of existential constructions in English in which an extra participant is introduced as theme: the subject of the verb have. In their own words "This refers to a person, thing, etc., indirectly involved in the existential proposition" (p.961), as in "The porter had a taxi ready". Apart from languages that always use introductory adverbs in existential clauses, such as English (there to be), French (y avoir), and Italia4, in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese (example 5), the use of a deictic locative expression (examples 2, 3 and 4) is no longer obligatory. It should be observed that a prepositional phrase expressing "place" would be equivalent to a subject noun phrase in possessive constructions, as in (6) and (6').

(2)... que nonaviay mouros nem judeus ("that there were no moors or jews" ( Cantigas de Santa Maria13th century) [there] MT COPY AVAILABRE

This paper is based on the results of a wider research developed with Juanito Avelar during the past two years. (3)...debaixo do estrado ha uma bateria eletrica ("under the mattress frame there is anelectricbattery" -19th century) [below, under] (4)...aqui tem cinema, tern teatro ("here there is a movie theater, there is a theater"- AC015/9020th century) [here]

(5) acho que neio tem soluceio("I think there is no solution" - AC002/90 20t1 century) (6) ...na minha casa tinha um jardirn ("in my house there was a garden") casa tinha um jardim ("my house had a garden")

For a long time, many authors have postulated the hypothesis that existential and locative sentences may be gathered together in a same group. Since Lyons (1979), it has been observed that, in almost all languages, possessive and existential clauses may be considered to be syntactically derivedsynchronically as well as diachronically -- from locative constructions. Guéron, 1986 (apud Franchi et alii) justifies this position through the use of the same verb avoir both in existential and possessive sentences. The same is true for Brazilian Portuguese, in which the use of ter in a third-person singular form gives rise to an existential expression. This derivational hypothesis is no longer accepted by many authors. Viotti (1999), based on Chomsky's minimalist program, presents a formal explanation to explain the syntax of existential clauses in Portuguese. Observing the history of the verb ter in Brazilian Portuguese, Viotti comes to the conclusion that all sentences with this verb regardless of the semantic domain -- presents the same syntactic origin. Franchi et alii (1998), based on the properties observed in the analysis of a corpus of spoken Brazilian Portuguese, say that "existential sentences fall into a class of constructions called impersonal constructions". Many linguists also refer to the fact that the noun phrase following the verb is usually indefinite the so-called definiteness effect, pointed out by Milsark (1979). In any case, our aim here is not to present arguments or take a position for either explanation of the phenomenon.

2.The problem and the data 3 The use of ter (=to have)lhaver (=there to be)-existential clauses represents one out of many linguistic changes that took place in Brazilian Portuguese beginning in the XIXth i\andhasbeenanalyzedfromdifferentperspectives.MattoseSilva (1997/1996/1989) presents a detailed description ofiuse of these verbs in ancient Portuguese, but, in this paper we consider its use only in existential sentences, trying to detect the historical, social and structural factors that are responsible for its variation in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. It has been assumed that certain syntactic, semantic and social factors influence variation between the two verbs. These are: verb tense and semantic nature of the internal argument, age group and gender, respectively. The results are based on qualitative and quantitative sociolinguistic variation

analyses in real time (short and long term) and in apparent time. The data are taken from

written colpora, spanning the 13th to the 20th century, as well as from oral corpora,

consisting of informal interviews with University graduates (standard dialect) from Rio

de Janeiro, stratified for age and gender. The spoken sample was collected in the 70's

and in the 90's, for a panel and trend study.

Through-out the recorded history of Portuguese language, ter (< tenere) and haver (< habere) may be considered verbs of broad functionality. The multiple functions range from a main verb, indicating possession (7) and/or existence (8) to an auxiliary (9), indicating time, mood, and aspect and even to a 'light' or functional verb (10) that transfers predication to its object. (7) Ele tem muilos livros na mesa ("He has many books on the table") (8) Iiii/Tent muitos livros na mesa ("There are many books on the table") (9) Ele tinhalhavia comprado muitos livros ("He had bought many books") (10) Ele tern tempo para fazer o trabalho ("He has time to do the work") Given such a broadening of functions, ter eventually displaced haver in the semantic domain of possession. The overlapping of these verbs appears to be rooted in developments that took place much earlier in Latin. The intersection of meanings of habere, prototypical possession (to take possession, to maintain, to own) and tenere, secondary possession (to holdiin handl), to sustain, to possess, to obtain) could explain the process.

4 Beginning with the first documents, in Portuguese (Mattos e Silva, 1996), as well as in Spanish (Camarero, 1997 [apud Viotti]), there is a tendency to use ter asa verb of possession and by the middle of the 16th century ter displaced haver from this semantic domain. On the other hand, haver substitutes ser (= to be) as the central existential verb and the frequency of use of ter in existential clauses increases gradually over time (Figure 1). This substitution may also be traced back to the middle of the 16th

0 TER 13 HAVER

100% 100% 100% 78% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 13th 15th 19th

century, the same period in which haver no longer indicates possession, except in specific contexts.

Figure 1The alternation of use of ter/haver-existential clauses in the history of Portuguese language

The distribution of the three verbs, ter (to have), haver (there to be) and ser (to be) in the nuclear domains of possession and existence may be represented by the following schemas:

habere esse possession pc has 19 existence (Y exists) habere tenere tenere

Callou & Avelar (1999) show that, in the last century, the frequency of use of ter (22%) instead of haver (78%) was still low, although. Jtalio Ribeiro (1914), in his grammar, had observed that "the substitution of haver by ter was increasing in Brazil, even in standard dialect" .

5 TER 0 HAVER 76% 80% 63% 70%. 60%. 50%.

40%. 24% 30%. 20%. 10%. 0% 70's 80's

Figure 2Existential constructions with ter Figure 3 - Frequency of the verbs in each decade and haver in spoken language, taking into account the distribution in both samples

Nowadays, the use of existential sentences with the ver ter is predominant in Brazilian Portuguese, in opposition to haver, as we can see in Figure 2. If we take into consideration the two decades, the results suggest that there is a change in progress (Figure 3). 2.Conditioning factors: statistical results For the spoken language (1528 tokens), both in the 70's and in the 90's, the VARBRUL program shows that the most significant structural and social factors are: verb tense, semantic nature of the internal argument, age groupby decade -- and gender. For tense, ter-existential sentences usually appears in the present tense and haver in the past (perfect and imperfect). Table 1 exhibits this opposition and the increase in use of ter in the 90's (with different speakers) when the verb is in the perfect tense. TENSE 70's 90's Present 340/48670% /.60350/39788% /.60 Perfect 5/48 10% /.09 15/43 35% /.38 Imperfect 159125064% /.44 137/ 20569% /.45 Table 1Percentage and Relative Weight of the use of ter

The numbers suggest that haver, in spoken language, has become a typical verb of narratives, a discourse modality that favors the use of the past tense.

6 For the semantic nature of the internal argument, the following factors were postulated: animate (11 and 12), inanimateconcrete -- (13 and 14), abstract (17 and 18), spacepublic place, district, region (15 and 16), and event (19 and 20). (11) ha mulheres que se comportam... (70-233) "There are women that behave themselves"

(12) aqui no Leblon tem o padre...(90-347) "Here, in Leblon, there is the priest"

(13) havia muita banana... (70-141) "There was much (lots of) banana"

(14) tinha biscoitos na Colombo... (90-002) "There were biscuits (cookies) in Columbo"

(15) havia alguns cinemas na cidade...(70-259) "There were some movie theaters downtown"

(16) tem bairros sensacionais fora de Salvador...(70-255) "There are sensational neighborhoods outside of Salvador"

(17) new havia uma censura teio grande, näo havia exagero... (70-259) "There wasn't so much censorship, there was no exaggeration"

(18) neio tern mais o charme que tinha... (70-255) "It's old charm doesn't exist anymore.

(19).foi uma lase que houve concursos pfiblicos...(70-164.) "It was a phase in which there were public competitions"

(20) quando eu fiz quinze anos, teve uma festa maravilhosa... (90-002) "When I was fifteen years old, there was a wonderful party"

Generally, when the internal argument is an "event", the verbs ter and haver are not really "existential" and could not be properly replaced by "exist". The verb has rather the meaning of "occur" ,"happen" or "take place", as in examples (21) to (23). In contemporary spoken Brazilian Portuguese, haver has a factual sense. In any case, the frequency of use of ter-existential sentences is higher from one decade to the other for all uses. (21) urn dia houve uma enxurrada (70-273) "one day a heavy rain occurred"

(22) quando ha uma seca muito violenta (70-247) 7 "when a violent draught occurs"

(23) toda vez que ha uma festa (70-247) "each time a party occurs"

As we can see (Figure 4), the use of haver is almost exclusively restricted to [+abstract} and [+event] arguments.

El TER S HAVER

100% 91% 90% 79% 80%-

70%- 59% 60% 50% 50% 50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0% INANIMATE ANIMATE SPACE EVENT ABSTRACT Figure 4Frequency of ter as regarding the semantic type of the argument

The great majority of cases that favor the use of haver refers to prototypical cases of the so-called "light" verbs, the object of which is not definite nor referential, as in examples 24, 25, 26 and 27. (24) neio ha vantagem...90-164 ("there is no advantage") (25) tido ha tempo...90-164 ("there is no time"

(26) hti possibilidade..70-114 ("there is [a] possibility") (27) não havia jeito...70-088 ("there was no way") The patterns of distribution by age group are similar, but, in the 90's, there is a well marked opposition between younger speakers and middle-aged and older speakers: a curve of change in progress in the direction of elimination of haver- existential (Figure 5). Our hypothesis is that in school the use of ter may no longer be stigmatized, even in written language. When we are dealing with the same speakers, in the two decades, the results run parallel to the projections of Labov's age-grading model, but at a higher level (8 % to18 %). Thus, the majority of the community continues to advance in the use of ter-existential (Figure 6).

8 -- DE-C. 70 -6 CEC. 90] -4-70's s

90% 120% 78% 80% 75% 98% 70% 100% 82% 61% 60% - 53% 80% 68% 67% 50% - 40% - 60% 60% 60% 30% - 40% 20% 10% - TO% 0% 0% 25-35 36-55 5645 76... 25-35 36-55

Figure 5Distribution of ter by age Figure 6Distribution of ter by age in the 70's and in the 90's (different age group in the 70's and in the 90's (the speakers) same speakers)

Gender also has a significant effect, mainly in the 70's (Figure 7). It seems that women were in the lead of the process, insofar as younger women present higher frequency in the 70's(80%-female versus 46% - male), the use of ter being almost

categorical(98%),in the 90's, in both male and female speech.

II 70's 1::190's

74 /0 75% 80°/ 70° 60° 47% 50 40° 30° 20° 10° 0° MALE FEMALE

Figure 7The use of ter-existential in. and female speech in both decades

3.Perspectives and conclusions The next step in our research is to analyze more deeply the possibility of the presence of a pronominal subject, generally você or a genie ,in ter-existential clauses, as seen in examples(28)and(29).

(28)em Kioto, que era a antiga capital do Japelo, você tem esses templos lado a

lado corn...(90-012) "In Kyoto, which was the ancient capital of Japan, you have these temples, side by side with"...

(29) agenie tem urna aglomeraceio de pessoas aqui na Tijuca(90-002) "we[=peoplej have a crowd here at Tijuca

This use is increasing in the 90's (Figure8)and it has been explained within the general tendency towards the loss of the principle "avoid pronoun" (Duarte, 1995) in Brazilian Portuguese. The preceding sections have also shown the following:

9 a)there is a real-time change taking place (haver-existential 4 ter-existential) and age-grading seems to be involved in the process; b)it is possible that the substitution of ser-existential by haver-existentialwas already complete at the 16th century; c)the use of haver-existential (78%) has prevailed till the 19th century; d) younger speakers no longer have haver-existential sentence in speech.

4.References CALLOU, D. & AVELAR, J. (1999) Estruturas corn ter e haver em animcios do século A7X. Comunicacdo apresentada no III Semindrio do Projeto "Para uma história do português brasileiro", UNICAMP. DUARTE, M. E. (1995) A perda do principio"Evite pronome" no portugues brasileiro. Tese de Doutorado, Campinas/UNICAMP. FRANCHI et alii (1998). Sobre a gramkica das oracties impessoais corn Ter/haver. D.E.L.T.A, vol.4, n° especial, Sao Paulo, EDUC: 105-131. LABOV, W. (1994) Principles of linguistic change: internal factores. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. LYONS, C. (1999) Definiteness. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. LYONS, J. (1979) Introducdo a linguistica teórica. São Paulo, Companhia Editora Nacional. MILSARK, G. (1979). Existential sentences in English. New York, Garland. MATTOS E SILVA, R. V. (1997) ObservaVies sobre a variacdo no uso dos verbos ser, estar, haver,ter no galego-portugues ducentista.In Estudos lingiiisticos e litercirios (19). Salvador, Programa de pós-graduacdo em Letras e Lingnistica da Universidade Federal da Bahia. (1996) A variacdo haver/ter. In MATTOS E SILVA, R. V. (org.) A carta de CarninhaTestemunho linginstico de 1500, Salvador, EDUFBA. (1989) Estruturas trecentistasElernentos para uma gramática do portugués arcaico. Lisboa, IN-CM. NEVES, M. H. M. (1996) Estudo das construcaes com verbo-suporte em português. In KOCH, I. G. V. (org.) Gramática do portugues falado. Campinas, Editora da UNICAMP. QUIRK, R. et alii. (1972) A Grammar of contemporary English. Essex, Longman. RIBEIRO, I. (1993) A formação de tempos compostos; a evolução histórica das formas ter, haver e ser. In KATO, M. & ROBERTS, I. (orgs.) Portugues brasileiro Urna viagem diacremica. Campinas, Editora da UNICAMP. RIBEtRO, J. (1914) Grammatica portugueza. 12 ed. Rio de Janeiro, Livraria Francisco Alves & C. VIOTTI, E. (1999) A sintaxe das sentenças existenciais no portugues do Brasil. Tese de Doutorado. USP.

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