The diachronic course of adnominal adjectives in European Portuguese: from the 16th to the 19th century

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the role of syntax in the change of the unmarked order of adjectives in Portuguese from prenominal position to postnominal position. Other studies did not show any significant syntactic factor acting in this change. After a search in the data in the Corpus Histórico do Português Europeu, from the 16^th to the 19^th century, we concluded determiners have a key role in the reorganization of adjectives: the change occurred only in bare and definite DPs, since the indefinites were already more common in post-nominal position at least since the 16^th century. These data challenge the literature, and therefore should be more discussed.