A ordem e a função do clítico SE no português clássico

Abstract

Among the clitics, the SE is noteworthy for presenting a different behavior: while the other clitics are associated to the object function, SE can be associated to the subject or object. Based on Brito, Duarte and Matos (2003), we characterize three types of SE associated with the subject and object function: the passive SE, indefinite SE and SE as a reflexive pronoun. In this paper we describe the use of clitic SE in neutral main clauses, with the objective of observing the possible existence of a relationship between the position and the type/function of this clitic in texts by Portuguese authors born in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, from the Tycho Brahe Corpus. The use of SE associated with the subject function, passive SE and indefinte SE, neutral main clauses, seems to favor the enclitic placement in variation contexts, even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which the frequency of proclisis is superior, because, in the distribution of the type of SE by placing, the frequency of enclisis for these two types of SE remain quite high in the contexts of enclisis/proclisis variation, the opposite happens with the SE as a reflexive pronoun that keeps high frequency of proclisis and marginal enclisis.