ABSTRACT
This chapter adopts the general assumptions of historical and comparative studies that are based on the Principles and Parameters theory. It shows how, from the 19th century on, Brazilian Portuguese starts to exhibit patterns that differ from European Portuguese (EP), in both focus and wh-constructions. The chapter describes the types of Portuguese wh-questions through history; it shows the parallel changes in focus and wh-structures; the chapter also provides the formal analysis of the changes. It says that non-cleft constructions are older than the clefted ones; among the clefted ones, the ones with the overt copula are older than the ones without the copula. The chapter completes with the written data using results analyzed in Kato and Mioto. In the 18th century a new innovation was introduced: the canonical clefts and pseudo-clefts, with the copula in first position.
