Substitution of the gerund for the construction a + infinitive in European Portuguese (diachronic study)
2014
Abstract
The article aims to specify the period in which the gerund in Portuguese has given way to a + infinitive construction in syntactic positions in which the infinitive predominates also in the contemporary European Portuguese (periphrastic formations estar a + infinitive, ficar a + infinitive, continuar a + infinitive and andar a + infinitive, in semi-predicative clauses). In this analysis the electronic corpus (www.corpusdoportugues.org) was used.
The analysis shows that the period sought must be located in the 19th century (or slightly before), when the infinitive construction starts to appear with greater frequency than in previous centuries.