Studies on Variation in Portuguese

In this chapter, we analyze the variation between simple past and compound pluperfect forms to indicate past-in-the-past in European and Brazilian spoken Portuguese. Comparing data from Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon, we focus on the effect of three variables: verbal person, reference time and type of clause. Using multivariate analysis, we discuss the traditional assumption according to which the simple past with past-in-the-past reference is constrained in the third-person plural. We provide strong