Stativity and progressive morphology: an analysis in the light of Brazilian Portuguese acquisition

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to a discussion about the classification of types of verb, especially stative ones, upon an analysis of the emergency of the continuous aspect in the acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese. An analysis of the emergency of the progressive and the non progressive morphologies to the expression of this aspect associated to different types of verbs would enable to investigate if the progressive morphology is not associated only to stative verbs (SHIRAI AND ANDERSEN, 1995). Against this prediction, the hypothesis is, to the expression of the continuous aspect, the emergency of the progressive morphology occurs after the emergency of the non-progressive one with all types of verbs: activities, states, accomplishments and achievements. In order to verify this hypothesis, a longitudinal study with spontaneous speech data of a child acquiring Brazilian Portuguese in the age range from 2;3 to 2;8 was done. Verbal productions concerning the expression of the continuous aspect through the progressive and non progressive morphologies in all types of verb were analyzed. It was verified the expression of the continuous aspect through the non-progressive morphology occurred before its expression through the progressive morphology only in stative verbs, and that its expression occurred first through the progressive morphology with activity verbs. Therefore, the hypothesis was refuted. From the results analysis, it was discussed that verbs traditionally classified as stative not always are, since the association of this type of verb with a progressive morphology imparts a dynamic feature to the verb.