Gender and possessives in portuguese foreign language

Abstract

This study described the gender nominal agreement between possessives and nouns in Portuguese as foreign language. We analyzed noun phrases in which there is anomalous agreement between possessives and nouns. These noun phrases were written by learners of Portuguese at the University of Zimbabwe. This group of students presents previous linguistic knowledge of Shona and English, two linguistic systems different from Portuguese, what allows the occurrence of deviations. The language change and foreign language acquisition theories enlighten this study. Both are considered because they offer explanations for the deviations when individuals learn and use non-mother tongue. The results of this research reveal that learners, differently from Brazilian Portuguese, use definite articles before possessives. In regard to nominal agreement between possessives and nouns, the students replace the use of masculine by the use of feminine. This aspect, however, dues to the fact that they establish grammatical agreement based on biological gender.