This study investigates the deletion of the preposition that precedes the relative pronoun by Portuguese speakers of the south of Brazil and the north of Uruguay; the results are compared to data of European Portuguese. The material used is entirely of the spoken language: two styles taken from the project called ADDU-Atlas Lingüístico Diatópico y Diastrático del Uruguay (questions and answers, and free conversation), five interviews taken from the project known as NURC (Standard spoken language), in addition to interviews from the project called Português Fundamental (or Basic Portuguese spoken in Portugal). The analysis of the samples suggests that the tendency to delete the preposition ahead of the relative pronoun, common in Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, is not so frequent in European Portuguese, where, even in the circumstances of time and space, the preposition in is preserved. It was also noticed that in both Portuguese varieties the use of the relative pronoun that is frequently used to replace a propositioned constituent to avoid the construction of a complex relative clause.
preposition; relative pronoun; deletion; ambiguity
