Preferred Argument Structure in Oral and Written Portuguese

The existence of a preferred argument structure in oral & written Portuguese in a corpus comprising narratives, dissertations, & interviews is examined in this study. Preferred argument structure is a highly preferred pattern of using the verb direct arguments (intransitive subjects, transitive subject, & object), which is constituted by grammatical (one lexical argument per clause & nonlexical transitive subject) & pragmatic (one new argument per clause & nonnew transitive subject) restrictions. 11 Tables, 29 References. Adapted from the source document