Dinah Callou / Erica Almeida

The use of subjunctive mood in Portuguese: an overview

Keywords: Subjunctive mood; Portuguese varieties; standard and non-standard use; variation and change

The focus of this paper is the variable use of subjunctive/indicative mood throughout the history of Portuguese and our analysis is restricted to embedded clauses, in order to observe -- as far as the nature of the data will permit -- if the use of subjunctive/indicative mood in these constructions is always related to the semantic/lexical component of the main clause (the matrix verb). The assumption is that some verbs show (i) stability for centuries, with similar behavior over time or (ii) instability, with an increase or decrease of use of the subjunctive mood. Not all verbs license variable use (example 1) of both indicative and subjunctive forms.

(1) Eu quero que se saiba que eu estou criticando...
“I want  that one know <subj> that I'm criticizing... (the use of subjunctive is  categorical)

To support the idea that change and preservation can be observed simultaneously, we analyze data from spoken corpora of three varieties of Portuguese language (Brazilian, European and African (São Tomé) varieties – standard and non-standard -- making use of the theory of language change (Weinreich et alii, 1968; Labov, 1994).

So far, the analysis confirms that the use of subjunctive mood in embedded clauses is triggered by the matrix verb and the frequency of use, for instance, with acreditar/crer (‘to believe’/‘to think’/), ranges from 8% to 38% ; with parecer (‘to seem’), from 7%  to 0% with dizer (”to say/tell”), from 23% (13th century) to 0% (20th century); and with the verb pensar (“to think”), 13%).

To sum up, there are points of contact and similarity between the present and the past and crucial aspects of relevant changes in the history of Portuguese are confirmed. There are/were only a few verbs which trigger both indicative and subjunctive forms and an item can emerge into a new context without changing its essential selection properties: when the verb of the matrix clause, for instance, is preceded by the negative particle não (‘no/not’) -- examples (2) and (3) - the use of subjunctive mood is activated.

(2) NÃO creio [...] se igualem a mim
“not believe        become <subj> equal to me”

We conclude that the gradual loss of mood distinction may be seen as a tendency of Romance languages (Rivero, 1971; Lavandera, 1980; (Poplack, 1992) to include indicative forms in contexts once reserved to subjunctive mood, leading to a simplification of flectional verbal paradigm.

References

LABOV, W. 1994. Principles of linguistic change. Internal factors. Cambridge, Blackwell.
LAVANDERA, B. (1980). Variación y significado. Hachette.
POPLACK, S. (1992). The inherent variability of the French subjunctive. In: LAEUFER, C. & MORGAN, T. (eds). Theoretical Analyses in Romance Linguistics. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: 235-263
RIVERO, M. L. (1971) Mood and Presupposition in Spanish. In: Foundations of Language 7  p. 305-336.