Conditional and 'ir' in the Imperfect + Infinitive: questions of temporality and modality

• Autor(a) principal: Cunha, Luís Filipe
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln3ano2017a6
• topic: Semântica; relações temporais; Condicional; ir Infinitivo; modalidade; semantics; temporal relations; condicional; condicionalir ('go') Infinitive; modality

In European Portuguese, both the Condicional (approximately corresponding to the English structure would + Infinitive) and the construction ir (‘go’) in the Imperfect + Infinitive express posteriority with respect to a given past interval. In this paper, I show that, in spite of their seemingly similar behaviour, these two forms diverge in a number of significant aspects. In particular, and taking into account the analysis of contexts such as if-clauses and some subordinate complement clauses introduced by factive and intensional verbs, I will argue that, while the Condicional is mainly used to provide modal information, even losing its basic temporal value, the structure ir (‘go’) in the Imperfect + Infinitive always induces a temporal relation of futurity in a past domain, irrespective of the possible modal meanings accompanying it.