Differences and similarities between European and Brazilian Portuguese in the use of the «gerúndio»

Abstract

This paper provides a partial description of the main differences between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) concerning the use of the «gerúndio». Two rather distinct syntactic and semantic uses of this verb form are focussed: the periphrastic «gerúndio» and the adverbial «gerúndio». The periphrastic «gerúndio» occurs in combination with auxiliary verbs, forming complex sequences of two verbal elements. In modern EP, it tends to fall into disuse after some auxiliary verbs, the uninflected infinitive (preceded by a preposition) emerging instead. This paper identifies and briefly characterises the contexts where this competition «gerúndio»-infinitive takes place. The second kind of «gerúndio» occurs in adverbial clauses, where it may be associated with a wide spectrum of interpropositional semantic values, like cause, result or mood, just to name a few. After a brief semantic characterisation of the adverbial «gerúndio», the main differences between EP and BP involving its use will be described. Among them, those concerning the use of gerundive clauses preceded by the preposition em and, once again, those involving the competition «gerúndio»-infinitive, stand out.