Reexaminando a interpolação de não: estudo num corpus de português clássico e moderno

The central topic of the paper is interpolation (clitic-verb non-adjacency) in Classical and early Modern European Portuguese (EP). In that period, the não negative marker was the only expression eligible to break the continuity of clitic-verb sequences. The aims of the study are twofold. First, previous assumptions on the syntax of this linear model are matched against corpus data. The present analysis demonstrates, first, that interpolation was allowed outside obligatory proclisis contexts. They correspond to the presence of the não negative in four structural positions where enclisis and proclisis were freely interchangeable in previous stages and where enclisis is nowadays mandatory. The second aim is to account for the overrepresentation, underpinned by corpus data, of 3rd person direct object pronouns in sequences with interpolation. Interpolation is claimed to have enabled speakers to get rid of morpho-phonological ties between the o, a, os, as series and the preceding non-verbal sound material (nasal diphthongs in não, quem, etc, coercing pronouns into taking a nasal onset quem no, nãono, etc.). As a consequence, in contemporary standard EP, clitic-specific allomorphy is earmarked for enclisis.