Que ao mestre vai matá-lo? The evolution of prepositional accusatives in Portuguese across time

2026-04-12 · Source: Paper Index on ACL Anthology · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics, Natural Language Processing · Depth: Expert, medium

Summary

Helena Rodrigues Menezes de Oliveira Vaz's work investigates Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), focusing on a-marked objects or prepositional accusatives (PP-ACCs). The study analyzes these objects across four variables: semantic requirements, constituent order, verb semantics, and textual genre. Researchers trained an optimized parsing model to identify PP-ACCs and automatically annotate historical documents from the Tycho Brahe and Colonia corpora. Contrary to expectations from prior European Portuguese (EP) studies, results indicate PP-ACCs persist in BP from the 18th century. The findings align with EP patterns, suggesting textual genre (narrative texts and theater plays) as a potentially relevant variable, while constituent order proved less significant than previously thought. The research also highlights methodological challenges in applying computational models and NLP tools to historical Portuguese linguistic studies.

Key takeaway

For computational linguists or historical language researchers analyzing diachronic changes in Portuguese, your models should account for the continued presence of prepositional accusatives in Brazilian Portuguese since the 18th century. Pay particular attention to textual genre, as narrative texts and theater plays appear to be significant variables. Be prepared for methodological challenges when applying NLP tools to historical language data, and validate constituent order's impact carefully.

Key insights

Prepositional accusatives persist in Brazilian Portuguese since the 18th century, with textual genre influencing their presence.

Principles

• PP-ACCs remain in BP from the 18th century.
• Textual genre is a relevant variable for PP-ACCs.
• Constituent order is less significant than assumed.

Method

An optimized parsing model was trained to recognize and automatically annotate prepositional accusatives in historical corpora like Tycho Brahe and Colonia, facilitating diachronic linguistic analysis.

In practice

• Use parsing models for historical linguistic annotation.
• Consider textual genre in diachronic language studies.

Topics

• Differential Object Marking
• Prepositional Accusatives
• Brazilian Portuguese Diachrony
• Computational Linguistics
• Historical Corpora

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Paper Index on ACL Anthology.