This is a variationist " short term real time study" of change, focusing the third person anaphoric subject, based on samples of high-level educated speakers from Rio de Janeiro, recorded in the 70's and the 90's, with an interval of about 20 years. Two types of studies have been carried out: a panel study, which examines the performance of the same individual in two different moments and a trend study, which investigates two samples of the same community in the same span of time. The theoretical framework associates assumptions of the Theory of Variation and the Principles and Parameters Theory. The paper also presents a comparison with European and Mozambican Portuguese.
Short term real time study; The Theory of Variation; Principles and Parameters
