Some Notes about Galician Verbs by Romania Minor

Xavier FrĂas Conde

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

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Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Foreword

Galician, as a so-called lesser-used language, has been the goal of dozens of study regarding its sociolinguistic situation and that is why it is mainly known beyond its borders. Within the process of normalisation of the language, apart from fixing its spelling, its grammar has been described and normativised in order to build up a standard language, comparable to any other within the Iberian Peninsula. However this kind of grammar handbooks have followed the traditional patterns that predominate in the Spanish and Portuguese academical tradition. Besides the interest of most grammar books was to set a prescriptive grammar, not to find out to what extent Galician may be object of deeper studies concerning different layers of its structure. The description of the Galician grammar is undoubtedly complete and precise, but those points which usually remain beyond the reach or interest of traditional grammars are still 7

Xavier FrĂas Conde waiting to be tackled. One of these still unstudied fields is the nature of the verb. One can find a great deal of information about Galician paradigms, but not so much about the use of aspect (which seems to be not so relevant), mood or even auxiliary verbs. This study is an approach to these matters concerning verbs, where the methodological framework has been our FunctionalCategorial Grammar. Readers will find not only new information about the aforementioned topics, but also an interpretation of the sentence structure that will allow them to understand better why things work in a specific way in Galician. My warm relationship with the Prague Linguistic Circle has also galvanised me to carry out this study. Besides, the present text was completely digested in Kladno during the months of August and September, so this book is very narrowly linked to the Czech Republic.

In Kladno, Central Bohemia August-September 2012

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

1. An Overview of the Galician Verbal Paradigm

1.1. An Introduction to the Galician Verb As in all Romance languages, Galician has a very rich paradigm of verbs. The use of its different forms depends on many factor that will be analysed all over this section. In any Galician verb one can easily distinguish different parts, being the main one the lexeme which furnishes the lexical ground and the rest (always after the lexeme-stem) morphemes that indicate a great deal of elements, such as tense, aspect, person, etc. While English verbs may show a certain part of the information in outer elements, as in: EN: You might arrive the Galician verb tends to show it by means of morphemes. Anyway one should not think that Galician verbs are utterly analytic, because outer elements (mainly auxiliary and modal verbs) are to be found. The former English example could be translated into Galician as:

Xavier FrĂas Conde EN: ChegarĂas [= You would arrive] where the information is structured: cheg

Lexeme

Thematic vowel: 1st conj.

Tense and aspect

Person

Morphemes Moneme

So in order to study the Galician verb one must analyse all the elements that belong to the verb and that are expressed in different ways: person, time and aspect. It is important to remark that there are three conjugations in Galician, as in Portuguese, everyone having its own thematic vowel: <a> for the first, <e> for the second and <i> for the third (verb pĂłr belongs to the second one, being its ancient form poer still conserved in Eonavian Galician, the Galician dialect spoken in Asturias).

Some Notes about Galician Verbs 1.1.1. Person There are six persons in Galician as in the rest of IberoRomance languages (they correspond to the personal pronouns). The grammatical subject need not be shown most of the cases, because the verb endings show it. So, the English forms I sing, you sing, we sing are distinguished thanks to the personal pronouns. This is not necessary in Galician, where the subject is present in the verb morphemes: canto, cantas, cantamos. Thanks to this procedure, most Galician sentences don't show the subject if it's easily understood by means of the verb ending. In most cases, the presence of an outer subject serves to express to things: 1) emphasis: GL: Eu non o fixen, fuches ti [= I didn't do it, it was you [who did it]] 2) change of subject in complex sentences: GL: N贸s non fomos ao partido, mais eles v铆rono enteiro pola tele [=We didn't go to the [football] match, but they saw it complete on TV] It would not be correct in this example to drop the outer subjects (especially the second one). Moreover, we must 11

Xavier Frías Conde distinguished between marked and unmarked persons. The third person is supposed to be unmarked, therefore it is the one used to express impersonality: GL:Fan unha ponte nova todos os anos [=They make a new bridge every year / A new bridge is made every year] This "they" is a kind of expletive, because it means nothing. These matters will be seen later when treating about syntax. Anyway, it is important to mention here that the third person of the verb (singular or plural) together with the clitic se (as a matter of fact an unbound morpheme) is the most habitual procedure to express the passive voice of English whenever the agent of the action is not interesting or is unknown: GL: Véndese unha casa na praia [=A house by the seaside is sold] GL:Aquí arránxanse autos estranxeiros [=Foreign cars are repaired here] 1.1.2. Tense and time As in so many languages, tense and time do not always have a mutual correspondence in Galician. First of all, the Galician simple tenses are these (we now include the aspect, 12

Some Notes about Galician Verbs despite it will be explained afterwards): Real Indicat.

Present falo

Subjunct. Present fale

Hypothetical Indefinite falei

Imperfective Pluperfect falara falara

Present falarei

Past

Present

falase

falar

Past falarĂa

The hypothetical tenses are to be identified with: hypothetical present is the traditional future and the hypothetical past is the traditional conditional. The complete table of conjugation can be seen bellow. This is summary of the main uses of these tenses. Not all the times are included here, so it will be necessary to add up some further information. 1.2. Compound forms Many aspectual circumstances are expressed in Galician by means of modal verbs. They are not mere syntactic verbs, as they behave in English, but they form a semantic unit as for their meaning and their function with the main verb. They are known as periphrasis by most authors and express different kinds of aspects that the main verb on its own is not capable, but there are powerful reasons to consider that the Galician paradigm, as well as most Romance ones, should include the 13

Xavier Frías Conde so-called perfect and continuous forms. It must be remembered that the relationship between tense and time in most languages is not bidirectional. Therefore, in Galician future time is rarely expressed by means of the future tense, but with a progressive periphrasis, as in most Western Romance languages. So, the English sentence GL: They are going on holiday tomorrow could be translated into Galician: GL: Mañá vanse de vacacións where the mere present tense is used to express future time. Tense I.Simple tenses 1. Present

Use(s)

Examples

Routines and invariable things Immediate future (usually with a time adverb) Things one does all over a long time

Góstame o café con leite (=I like white coffee) Mañá collo un avión para A Habana(=Tomorrow I'll take a plane to Havanna). Nos veráns adoito axudar a meu pai no traballo (=During the summer I usually help my father at work) Ti ficas aquí (=You do stay here) Vós non vedes hoxe a tele

Orders may be expressed with the present. They are even

Some Notes about Galician Verbs stronger.

(=You don't watch the telly today)

2.1. Indefinite

Actions that are utterly finished in the past

Onte fun ao cinema (=Yesterday I went to the cinema)

2.2. Imperfective

They refer to actions that were ocurring throughout a long moment in the past. Therefore there's usually a time reference:

2. Past

No verán do 1998 eu estudaba alemán (During the summer of 1998 I was studying German).

…….|___________|…. .

2.3. Pluperfect

This particularly frequent when two actions appear together

Mentres vía a televisíon, chamaron á porta (While I was watching TV, they knocked on the door)

The pluperfect just exists when there are two past actions, happening one before the other. The first one is expressed by means of the pluperfect.

Os estudantes chegaran á cidade antes de saberen a noticia (=The students had arrived in town before they knew the news)

…|___A__|..|__B___| ….

Pedín a información á oficina, mais eles xa ma mandaran (=I asked for the information to the bureau, but they had already sent it to

Xavier Frías Conde me) II. Continuous tenses (formed, as in English, with the help of auxiliary estar + present participle) III. Perfect tenses 2 (formed with the help of auxiliary ter + past participle)

Events taking place at the moment

Estou a comer xusto agora (=I'm eating just now) 1

An experience that has been existing uninterruptedly for very long To remark something that has happened a lot of times since the past and is still on In certain cases, when the speaker wants to refer to an event happened in a recent

Ese camiño téñoo eu andado des que era neno(=I've been walking along that path since I was a child) Téñoo visto corenta veces (=I've seen it more than forty times). Téñoo feito, mais non o trouxen (=I have done it but I don't get it on me)

It's important to remark that the difference between simple and continuous tenses in Galician isn't as strict as it is in English. Where English would probably distinguish between "What do you do?" and "what are you doing?", Galician may say "Que fas?" for both things. The English sentece "I'm playing football at the moment" might be said in Galician: Estou a xogar ao futbol agora but also Agora xogo ao futbol. Anyway, the first one is more habitual. 2

For many authors compound tenses do not exist in Galician. Nevertheless we prefer to include these tenses here. It is right that compound tenses in Galician do not work in the same way as they do in Spanish, but the aspects they express must be taken into account.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs past but which is still having consequences

Beneath we will deal in-depth with this matter. 1.3. The Paradigm Beneath all the Galician tenses are offered according to the regular paradigm. For practical reasons, the future and conditional tenses have not been left out of the indicative, but as a part of it. I CONJUGATION falar

II CONJUGATION coller

III CONJUGATION partir

INDICATIVE Present falo falas fala falamos falades falan

collo colles colle collemos colledes collen

parto partes, parte partimos partides parten

Imperfect Preterit falaba falabas

collía collías

partía partías

Xavier Frías Conde falaba falabamos falabades falaban

collía colliamos colliades collían

partía partíamos partiades partían

Perfect Preterit falei falaches falou falamos falastes falaron

collín colliches colleu collemos collestes colleron

partín, partiches partiu partimos partistes partiron

Pluperfect falara falaras falara falaramos falarades falaran

collera colleras collera colleramos collerades colleran

partira partiras partira partiramos partirades partiran

Future falarei falarás falará falaremos falaredes falarán

collerei collerás collerá colleremos colleredes collerán

partirei partirás partirá partiremos partiredes partirán

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Conditional falaría falarías falaría falariamos falariades falarían

collería collerías collería colleriamos colleriades collerían

partiría partirías partiría partiriamos partiriades partirían

SUBJUNCTIVE Present fale fales fale falemos faledes falen

colla collas colla collamos collades collan

parta partas parta partamos partades partan

Imperfect Preterit falase falases falase falasemos falasedes falasen

collese colleses collese collesemos collesedes collesen

partise partises partise partísemos partísedes partisen

Xavier FrĂas Conde Future falar falares falar falarmos falardes falaren

coller colleres coller collermos collerdes colleren

partir partires partir partirmos partirdes partiren

IMPERATIVE fala falade

colle collede

parte partide

NON FINITE FORMS Infinitive falar

coller

partir

Conjugated Infinitive falar falares falar falarmos falardes falaren

coller colleres coller collermos collerdes colleren

partir partires partir partirmos partirdes partiren

Gerund falando

collendo

partido

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Past Participle falado

collido

partido

The Galician set of tenses, if compared with the neighbouring languages, turns out quite interesting and particular. It reportedly has the same number of tenses as Portuguese, but there has been an evolution in the specific use of certain tenses in each particular language. Therefore, Galician maintains clearly the pluperfect as a simple form, while Portuguese tends to substitute it by tinha + participle (in Brazil even havia). Besides, the future conjunctive, stylistically promoted in written Galician, is no longer used in the spoken language, being replaced by present conjunctive. Instead, Portuguese keeps it perfectly alive. Take into account that future subjunctive was also common in classic Spanish. The comparison with Spanish offers the preference of Galician for simple tenses (further on we will discuss about the existence of compound tenses in Galician). In this case, Galician possesses fewer tenses than Spanish. It shares with the other families of its family the preference for the use of analytic future with ir + infinitive. In both Galician and Portuguese without a preposition, as well as a common use of the continuous forms. These features related to the use of tenses don't diverse 21

Xavier FrĂas Conde among these languages too much. Anyway, the Galician paradigm is diachronically archaic, conservative. The standard language has preserved all these conservative features avoiding coincidences with Portuguese. Let's mention some of them. The imperfect tenses conserve the stressed syllable such as it was in Latin in the first and second persons of plural. This treatment coincides with Italian at least as for the imperfect preterite indicative: cantabamos, cantabades (GL) ~ cantavamo,cantavate. Observe above the place of the stressed syllable in the imperfect preterite indicative, the conditional and the pluperfect tenses. Instead, the imperfect preterite subjunctive does not follow this pattern. The next interesting point is the conservation of the very conservative endings of the second person plural in -des: cantades, bebedes, partides. In Portuguese they evolved into is, as in Spanish, and further on they converged with the third person plural paradigm due to the disappearance of the vĂłs person in Standard Portuguese, substituted by vocĂŞs. As for the rest, the Galician verbal system is virtually the same as the Portuguese one, including conjugated infinitive (whose use is virtually the same), though some high stylistic resources of the Portuguese language, such as the mesoclisis, do not exist in Galician: PT: Dir-te-ei alguma coisa interessante [= I'm goint to tell you something interesting] which could be expressed in Galician in at least three different 22

Some Notes about Galician Verbs ways: GL: Heiche dicir / hei dicirche unha cousa interesante GL: Vouche dicir / vouche dicir unha cousa interesante GL: Direiche unha cousa interesante

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

2. Some Considerations about the Use of Subjunctive Mood in Galician

2.1. The complexity of the subjunctive mood. Our aim in this study is to analyse the use of subjunctive in Galician, though most of the items here described are valid for the rest of the Ibero-Romance languages. Subjunctive is a quite complex verbal mood whose rules cannot be easily summarised, though the main ones will be reflected along this study. Anyway, it is important to highlight that those theories referring to subjunctive as an optional mood, linked to the expression of irreality, hypothesis, likelihood, unfulfillment, etc. are quite incomplete, since the structural rules tend to be totally neglected, i.e., the use of subjunctive is often ruled by the main predicate with no other option. Therefore the representation of the subjunctive uses in Galician may be represented like this:

Xavier FrĂas Conde

2.2. Improper Use of Subjunctive Romance language lack some forms of imperative, which were already inexistent in Latin, thus they were developed by Romance in order to fill up the scheme of imperative forms. The following table shows the improper subjunctive forms related to the imperative paradigm in Spanish, where improper subjunctive forms come marked in bold (observe how the negative paradigm is fully made up by means of the imperative forms):

[G1]

(+)

(â&#x20AC;&#x2022;)

2PS

canta

non cantes

2PS (courtesy)

cante

non cante

cantemos

non cantemos

1PP 26

Some Notes about Galician Verbs 2PP

cantade

non cantedes

2PP (courtesy)

canten

non canten

Therefore the improper denomination tag refers to the use of subjunctive forms but without subjunctive value, which is a feature common to all Ibero-Romance languages. 2.3. Subjunctive among other Moods Apart from the previous use, the real subjunctive mood is ruled under complex rules, such as it was mentioned before, being mainly a mood to be find in dependent clause. The matter of how many moods exist in Romance languages is a matter that has not been solved, since there is no complete agreement among scholars about it, but a relatively acceptable theory holds there are at least four moods: indicative, subjunctive, potential and imperative. The distribution of these moods is not free, since not all of them can be used everywhere. The following graphic shows their use in both main and dependent clauses: [G2]

Main

Dependent

Indicative

(+)

Subjunctive

(â&#x20AC;&#x2022;)

(+)

Xavier Frías Conde Potential

(+)

Imperative

(+)

(―)

2.4. The realis ~ irrealis tag This tag acquires a crucial importance, since it allows us to understand why in some cases the speaker makes his choice between indicative and subjunctive. The tag realis [+realis] corresponds to events or facts that have happened or are to happen for sure. The speaker is involved in it and when dealing with people or items, the speaker knows about their existence. Instead, the tag irrealis [-realis] refers to events or facts whose implementation is not sure, is rather hypothetical. When dealing with people or items, their existence is uncertain for the speaker. Let's see some examples of it: GL: Os veciños que teñen cans non poden deixalos ceibes no patio [=Neighbours having dogs cannot let them move untied in the yard] The speakers knows for sure that there are neighbours having dogs. Instead the lack of certainty, the expression of a hypothesis would lead to the use of subjunctive in all Ibero28

Some Notes about Galician Verbs Romance languages: GL: Os veci単os que te単an cans non poder叩n deixalos ceibes no patio [=Neighbours having dogs may not let them move untied in the yard] The use of the future in the main verb is facultative, yet the use of the subjunctive in the relative clause gives an effect of command (probably a written one). Clauses whose semantic structure is clearly tagged as [+realis] would never accept subjunctive, as in the following Spanish example: GL: Hai xente que non sabe / *non saiba comportarse [=There are people who don't know how to behave themselves] Instead, the transformation of such statement into a negation gives place to an irrealis situation, since the negation is often linked to irrealis: GL: Xa non hai xente que *sabe/ saiba coci単ar ben [=There are not people who can cook well any longer]

Xavier FrĂas Conde 2.5. Subjunctive Mood in Main Clauses Subjunctive can apparently be used in main clauses in certain cases, but this is not true. The presence of subjunctive in main clauses is due to the omission of the main clause, a complex structural process that can be of three types. 2.5.1. First type On the one hand, the main clause may be omitted (overt), which means that it can be retrieved. In these cases, que (the complementizer) is maintained: GL: Que calen xa [=Let them be silent now] The presence of que is a token of the overt clause, which could be easily retrieved, as in: GL: Espero que calen xa [=I want them to be silent now] The representation of the overt sentence is as follows

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Observe that the first COMP is filled in with pro, which is really a proform for the whole main clause. 2.5.2. Second type The second type of apparent subjunctive use in main clauses responds to covert types, i.e., clauses having a “hidden” main clause, where the complementizer que is not present. Although they can be retrieved, they are not usually expressed. They usually correspond to thought or opinion clauses with the presence of certain doubt adverbs such as quizá, talvez, probablemente, which actually represents a kind of truncated main clause: GL: Seica veñan máis tarde [=Perhaps they will come later] The interpretation of the truncated main clause is plausible in all cases. Thus it is possible to rewrite the previous example 31

Xavier Frías Conde as: GL: É posible que veñan máis tarde [=Perhaps they will come later] Talvez and other related adverbs can be maintained when the truncated clause is retrieved. In this case they are proforms no longer, but mere adverbs: GL: Penso que seica veñan máis tarde [=I think they might come later] The previous examples respond to a [-realis] interpretation, but a [+realis] one is also possible, in which case indicative (preferentially future tense) is compulsory: GL: Penso que seica veñen / han vir máis tarde [=I think they will probably come later] It is quite interesting to observe a meaningful difference when placing seica/talvez before or after the verb. When they are placed before, indicative and subjunctive are chosen according to the aforementioned principles, being either a proform or an adverb, but when placed after the verb, it can just be an adverb and only indicative is possible; actually there is only one clause: GL: Os meus pais veñen/*veñan seica de luns 32

Some Notes about Galician Verbs [=My parents might come on Monday] 2.5.3. Third type The third and last type of subjunctive use in main clause corresponds to the use of oxalá only in Spanish, Galician and Portuguese. In this case, the main clause could also be retrieved, but oxalá does work as a proform, so that oxalá and the omitted main clause cannot cohabit together, yet the cohabitation of the proform and the clause was possible in the former type of doubt clauses, see §1.4.2). This particle does not exist in Catalan, though. GL: Oxalá (que) aprobes o exame [=Wish you passed your exam] Observe that que can be present or not. The presence of que reveals the existence of a dependent clause. In all three cases above, oxalá could be perfectly replaced by a clause beginning with: espero expressing desire. The interpretation of oxalá as a proform can be verified in the following parsing, where oxalá, as a proform, must be placed in the first COMP:

Xavier Frías Conde

2.6. Structural Subjunctive In most cases, subjunctive is not an option, but an imposition. Most completive clauses rule subjunctive without a real semantic reason related to [± realis]. Subjunctive is a compulsory with most verbs when the subjects of both the main and the depending clause are different. Subjunctive is also ruled by impersonal sentences containing the 3rd person singular of be (= é) followed by an adjective and the completive clause introduced by que, though infinitive is also an option when no reference to the second subject is made: GL: É difĩcil que che dean o traballo [=It's difficult they give you the job] And so, when the second subject is also irrelevant and the speaker intends to express impersonality, infinitive is possible 34

Some Notes about Galician Verbs GL: É difícil atopar traballo [=It's difficult to find a job] There is an intermediate option in Galician and also in Portuguese, which consists in the use of the so-called conjugated infinitive. The semantic value of the following examples is equivalent to the ones containing subjunctive: GL: É difícil atoparmos traballo [=It's difficult for us to find a job] There are however a few exceptions to the subjunctive structural use in impersonal sentences when the category [+realis] comes up with the adjective. In this case the structural principle gets cancelled in favour of the semantic nature of the adjective. This occurs with expressions such as Spanish es verdad / cierto / seguro when the predicate of the main clause is affirmative: GL: É verdade / certo que mercou un auto [=It's true (s)he has bought a car] However, this construction does not admit infinitive. Besides, the previous clauses take subjunctive when the main predicate turns into negative (remember that negation involves [-realis]): GL: Non é verdade / certo que mercase un auto 35

Xavier Frías Conde [=It's not true (s)he has bought a car] On the other hand, the opposite adjective falso (or the adjective-like expression with mentira) is ruled under the principle of [±realis]: GL: É falso que mercou / mercase un auto [=It's true (s)he has bought a car] Once again, this structure does not admit infinitive. As for the rest of adjectives referring to degrees of certainty, only subjunctive is possible: GL: É posible / probable que veñan [= It's possible / likely / probable for them to come]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

3. An Overview of the Use of Subjunctive in Galician

3.1. The Framework for the Approach to the Study of Subjunctive After having classified the different uses of subjunctive in Galician, it turns out necessary to refer to the application of the subjunctive typology. Subjunctive is deemed to be the mood of dependent clauses, which is only partly true. We will have the occasion of check the [Âąrealis] principle when the indicative/subjunctive choice is possible, now applied to specific types of clauses. Since we are following the methodological framework of our Functional-Categorial Grammar (FCG), because of its accuracy and simpleness when dealing with the nature of depending clauses, it turns out necessary to start with the explanation of a few concepts whose structure might show certain complications. Accordingly, the reference to depending clauses is to be specified, since the traditional and classical concept of subordination does not reflect the complexity of that type of clauses. In FCG, as well as in most syntactic theories, 37

Xavier FrĂas Conde the ways in which a clause is related with another one are basically two: as attached or as embedded (or inserted). The main difference between both kinds of clause-linking lies on the syntactic procedures used for dependent clauses to be joined to main clauses. It can be represented like this: EN: I suggested [that John should stay home] In this example, the clause between square brackets is embedded in the main one, acting as its Direct Object. It is a clear example of completive clause. Graphically the relationship between both clauses making up a sentence could be represented as follows:

Main

Dependent

The other type corresponds to an example such as: 38

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

EN: While you were lying down lazily, we all were working. In fact, the virtual separation between these two clauses allows the speaker to exchange their order (not in all cases, though): EN: We all were working while you were lying down lazily.

Main

Dependent

Furthermore, the syntactic representation of both sentences is completely different. In the first case, it is like this:

Xavier FrĂas Conde

The dependent clause is embedded within the main one, being its Od, as it was mentioned before. Instead, the second example corresponds to an utterly different kind of analysis, where the dependent clause works as a Topic of the main clause, not belonging, then, to its thematic grill, which causes the semantic link between both clauses to be much weaker.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

The general outline of depending clauses is then as follows: 1. Embedded clauses 1.1. Completive clauses 1.1.1. Type I: with will, advice, command, expectation, 1.1.2.1. With subject 1.1.2.2. With expletive 3 1.1.2. Type II: with thought, sense and speech verbs 1.2. Extension clauses 4 3

Obviously there is no expletive in Galician, but the equivalent forms in French would certainly have an expletive:

* Il faut changer d'avis 4

An extension clause is one bound to a major word class (noun, adjective or adverb) with no syntactical function:

Xavier Frías Conde 1.3. Relative clauses 2. Attached clauses 2.1. Adjunct clauses 2.1.1. Finality clauses 2.1.2. Cause clauses 2.1.3. Time clauses, etc. 2.2. Topic clauses 2.2.1. Conditional clauses 2.2.3. Consequence clauses, (etc.) 3.2. The Subjunctive in Completive Clauses 3.2.1. Completive Type I Clauses Most verbs whose objects are completive clauses rule subjunctive. It is necessary to remark that indicative is an unmarked mood [-marked], while subjunctive is marked [+marked]. Therefore the activation of the mark in [±MOD] is what triggers the use of subjunctive in dependent clauses. Thud, there is no option to choose the mood of this type of dependent clauses, it comes fixed up by structural reasons (see before structural subjunctive), which is interpreted as imposed by the COMP of the main clause, taking up a feature [+MOD]. COMP in this case is the modalizer. However, this [+MOD] feature comes up just provided that the subjects of both the main and the dependent clause are different, as in:

* É hora de cearmos [= It is dinner time / It is time we had dinner]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

GL: A María espera que (ti) veñas á casa

In case both subjects refer to the same person, the second one cannot be overt and therefore unretrievable, i.e., covered. Thus only infinitive can be used, as in all Romance languages (except Romanian): GL: A María espera vir á casa

Xavier Frías Conde

As it has been already mentioned, these clauses rule a structural subjunctive on the depending clause. All the previous examples refer to conventional completive clauses, but things are not different when dealing with nullsubject completive clauses (in fact, null-expletive clauses), except for the possibility to use the conjugated infinitive, as we will see beneath: GL: Convén / fai falla que estudes máis [= It is necessary for you to study harder]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

This type of sentences admit an impersonal use of the infinitive of the dependent clause: GL: ConvĂŠn / fai falla estudar mĂĄis [= It is necessary to study harder]

Xavier Frías Conde

As it has been previously mentioned, this type of nullexpletive constructions accept conjugated infinitive in the dependent clause: GL: Convén estudares máis

3.2.2. The Consecutio Temporum in Completive Clauses All the previous relationships concerning the use of conjunctive come together with the rules of the consecutio temporum existing between both the main clause predicate and the depending clause predicate. The basic scheme of the consecutio temporum regarding completive clauses is as 46

Some Notes about Galician Verbs follows: As a norm, present and future tense in the main predicate rules out present tense in the depending clause: GL: Quere / quererá que veñas mais tarde [= (S)he wants you to come later] Past tense (preterite or imperfect) rules out past tense as well: GL: Quixo / quería que viñeses máis tarde [= (S)he wanted you to (have) come later] Pluperfect rules out compound preterite, though not compulsorily, just if the context would make it necessary to specify a finished process or action; otherwise the simple form is preferred, much more than in Spanish. On the other hand, the use of the pluperfect in the main clause in this type of sentences may sound a bit odd, instead the compound conditional is largely preferred, since what is expressed here is irreal (“you should have come, but you cannot any longer”). Anyway, the pluperfect would probably be replaced by the imperfect preterite. GL: Quixera / teña querido // tería querido que viñeses / tiveses vido máis tarde [= I'd have wanted you to (have) come later]

Xavier Frías Conde This kind of completive clauses do not admit indicative, such as it has constantly repeated, but it is possible to make some exception. The verb esperar (but not querer, for example) may rule out a future tense in the dependent clause when expressing an almost certainty: GL: Espero que virás á miña festa. [= I hope you will come to my party] Actually, esperar in the previous example could be expressed in another way: GL: Estou case certo de que virás a miña festa [= I am almost sure you'll come to my party] 3.2.3. Completive Type II Clauses Thought and speech verbs do not force the dependent clause to take up subjunctive in Galician, as well as in the rest of Ibero-Romance languages (but not in standard Italian or 5

Sardinian ) 5

In standard Italian, the subjunctive is used with this structure: * Credo che lui sia troppo impegnato (=I think he's too busy).

However, in colloquial Italian the indicative tends to impose itself, as in the rest of Romance languages: * Credo che lui è troppo impegnato.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs From a structural point of view, the main clause has a COMP being [-MOD], which explains why the dependent clause takes indicative, since the unmarked form is automatically used: GL: Penso que marcharon hai un cacho [= I think they have left a short while ago] That structure is then represented as:

This type of structures also allow a finite form of the verb when the subject of both clauses is the same: GL: A MarĂa sabe que ten a culpa Sardinian, much more conservative as a rule, keeps the subjunctive in this case: * Creo chi isse siat tropu ocupadu.

Xavier FrĂas Conde [=Mary knows she's guilty]

Speech verbs follow the same pattern: GL: Di / cre que estĂĄ doente [= She says/ thinks she's ill]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Besides, all these verbs also accept infinitive constructions when the subject of both clauses is the same (anyhow it is much more usual with thought than with speech verbs) Completive Type II Clauses behave like Type I ones concerning the use of subjunctive when the main clause is negative. This is a very interesting reaction, where NEG becomes a modalizer. It is important not to forget that this kind of clauses has a [-MOD] in their COMP, which enhances NEG to become a real modilizer: GL: Non di / cre que estea / estivese doente [= She doesn't say / think she was ill]

Xavier FrĂas Conde

Paradoxically when the main predicate is negative, but with an imperative tense, then the dependent predicate maintains indicative: GL: Non creas que estĂĄ doente [= Don't think / believe she's ill] The explanation of this apparent lack of coherence lies in the fact that the latter sentence is a negative imperative clause, which acts similarly as an affirmative indicative tense in the main predicate. 3.2.4. Subjunctive in Relative Clauses As a principle, the unmarked mood of relative clauses is 52

Some Notes about Galician Verbs indicative, while subjunctive turns out the marked mood. It is possible then to deem the choice indicative-subjunctive as a case of realis / irrealis, though there are cases in which the difference between indicative and subjunctive is neutralized, so that the speaker may choose either with no appreciable difference in meaning, as in: GL: Non acredites todas as cousas que che contan / conten [= Don't believe everything you are told] On the other hand, there are cases when the difference is compulsory, as in: GL: Ten coidado co que comes [= Watch out what you eat] compared with: GL: Ten coidado co que comas nas vacaci贸ns [= Watch out what you eat during your holidays] In the first case, it is clear that the act of eating refers to a habit. The next example refers to a specific moment or period, though. Nevertheless, the opposition permanent-punctual, which is rather referred to aspect than tense, is not the only difference concerning 53

Xavier Frías Conde the use of indicative or subjunctive. The dichotomy realis/irrealis may stretch out to the psychological perception of the speaker. When the speaker is acquainted to somebody or something, indicative is preferred: GL: A xente que traballa en agosto non terá problemas para estacionar [= People who work in August won't have it difficult to park] GL: A xente que traballe en agosto non terá problemas para estacionar [= People who supposedly work in August won't have it difficult to park]

The cases shown above were not structural, i.e., the choice of mood depended on extralinguistic criteria. However, when dealing with main negative clauses, modality becomes structural and negation once again rules out subjunctive: GL: Non vexo por aquí animais que sexan perigosos [= I don't see any animals around that seem dangerous] Also imperative tense in the main clause rules out subjunctive in the relative one, the same as in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan, but different from French, Sardinian and Italian, which prefer indicative:

Some Notes about Galician Verbs GL: Ven cando teñas/ tiveres tempo [= Come (around) when you have time] A final group of subjunctive-ruled relative clauses is made up by those lacking referent and introduced by quen [=who], sometimes o que [=what], yet it could be actually introduced by all relative pronouns or relators, though less frequently. Galician can choose between present subjunctive (optionally future subjunctive, which is instead the only option in Portuguese) and some indicative tense, following the same realis / irrealis criteria mentioned in the beginning of this section, i.e., depending on the degree of reality – hypothesis perceived by the speaker, or the speaker's acquaintance to the people or events involved. GL: Quen teña / tiver sorte poderá saír de aquí The distance from reality can be noticed by the use of future indicative in the main clause, but if the speaker intends to express certainty, then the main clause will be build up with present indicative and so will the relative one. Observe the narrow tense-mood relationship between the the predicates of both the main and the dependent clauses:

GL: Quen estuda idiomas atopa traballo axiña → certainty [= People who study languages find a job soon] 55

Xavier Frías Conde

GL Quen estude / estudar idiomas, atopará traballo axiña → likelihood [= People who study languages will be <probably> find a job soon] On the other hand, emphatic constructions build up by inserting a relative clause rule out indicative6: GL: Quen deu saído de aquí é o Ignacio [= Who achieved to get out of here was Ignatius] 3.3. Subjunctive in Attached Clauses Attached clauses make up a rather heterogeneous group of structures that can be classified into three large groups depending on their syntactical behaviour: i. Adjunct clauses introduced by a complementizer containing a preposition + que or preposition + infinitive. An example of this is represented by conjunctions such as time linkers antes de [que] and después de [que]. As a matter of fact these clauses follow a structural pattern concerning the use of subjunctive, the same as completive clauses, for which reason there is no typological differences.

The non-emphatic form of this sentence would be: O Ignacio deu saído de aquí.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs ii. Time topic clauses introduced by mentres [=while, as], cada vez que [= every time] and cando. iii. Conditional topic clauses introduced by cando. 3.3.1. Subjunctive in Adjunct Clauses Such as it has just been explained, there is no difference between this type of prepositional clauses and completive clauses regarding their syntactical behaviour, except for cause clauses, which rule out indicative. To illustrate this beheviour, let's take a finality clause with two different subjects: GL: Vin รก casa para que descanses mellor

Xavier Frías Conde

When the subject of both predicates is the same, an infinitive clause is required, as it also occurs with completive clauses. GL: Vin á casa para descansar mellor [= I came home to have a better rest]

Anyway, Galician may also opt here to use conjugated infinitive provided that both subjects are different: GL: Vin á casa para descansares mellor

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

An interesting case relates to complex casual clauses containing the multiple linker non... porque, sen贸n porque [= not because (of)..., but because (of) 7]; this construction is nonstructural, which means that the choice of indicative or subjunctive is based on the principles of reality / irreality, though once again there are cases in which the difference may be neutralized, as in: GL: Non se queixa porque ten /te帽a fame, sen贸n por tristeza

In Portuguese with mas porque.

Xavier FrĂas Conde 3.3.2. Subjunctive in Topic Attached Clauses 3.3.2.1. Time Clauses introduced by cando and mentres Time clauses introduced by the aforementioned linkers present a complicated behaviour. As a rule, it could be stated that the use of subjunctive responds to the realis / irrealis criteria, but not always, since there are certain cases of compulsory subjunctive. On the one hand, the use of indicative may respond to an aspectual criterion of durative, not punctual8, as in: GL: A xente non fala cando / mentres come / *coma [= People don't speak as they are eating] whereas something punctual tends to be expressed by means of subjunctive, which often involves the use of the future tense in the main clause: GL: Cando saia / *sae o sol, marchamos / marcharemos [= When the sun rises, we will leave] Negative imperative constructions, as it's already been checked when dealing with completive clauses, rules out 8

In fact the same criterion analysed in section 2.4., regarding relative clauses. From a structural point of view, time clauses introduced with cando can be considered relative clauses without a referent.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs subjunctive here, as well: GL: Mentres / Cando comas / *comes, non fales [= As / while you are eating, don't speak] Affirmative imperative rules out subjunctive as well: GL: Recolle os pratos cando acabes de comer [= Pick the plates up after you finish lunch] Events, actions or processes whose reality is out of doubt use indicative: GL: Eu s贸 como cando / cada vez te帽o fame [= I just eat when(ever) I'm hungry] GL: Gasto ben pouca auga mentres tomo unha ducha [ = I (usually) spend very little water while/ whenever I have a shower] Instead, in case of doubt, hypothesis or eventuality, subjunctive is required, but the main clause is expressed in future tense: GL: S贸 comerei cando te帽a fame [= I will just eat when I am hungry] GL: Mentres non mudes de auto, vas ter 61

Xavier Frías Conde [= As long as you don't buy a new car, you'll keep having mechanical problems] 3.3.2.2. Conditional and Modal Clauses Apart from the time clauses seen before, topic clauses show special features of structural subjunctive in conditional and modal clauses introduced by como se [= as if] Types II and III Conditional Clauses having se [=if] rule out past subjunctive (see also Chapter 4, Section 6.2). Type II rules simple past subjunctive, while type III rules perfect past subjunctive (i.e., pluperfect). In these cases, neither present nor future subjunctive can be used GL: Se tivese diñeiro, viaxaría a Londres → improbable condition [= If I had money, I'd travel to London] GL: Se tivese estado en Londres no verán, tería visto as Olimpiadas → impossible condition [= If I had been in London last summer, I'd have seen the Olympic Games] Other complementizers, such as caso (or en caso de que) [= in case / provided that] may be used with type I conditional clauses, but always with subjunctive: GL: Caso tiveses frío, colle un cobertor [= In case you get cold, pick up a blanket] 62

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Similarly the complementizer cando when having a value which is half-way between condition and time expressions rules out subjunctive: GL: Cando esteas / se estás triste, chámame 9 [= When / if you feel sad, make me a call] Modal attached clauses introduced by como se rule out preterite subjunctive, as in all Romance languages (present subjunctive is not possible 10) GL: Pedro compórtase como se estivese doente

This ambivalent value can be perfectly noticed in Czech, since both complementizers are translated as když: CZ: Když jsi smutný, zavolej mi.

Observe how even in English, past subjunctive is required after as if.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

4. Modal and auxiliary verbs in Galician

4.1. The concepts of auxiliary and modal Canonical handbooks of Galician grammar do not pay much attention to the matter of auxiliaries and modals, yet in other neighbouring languages the topic does not turn out too interesting, therefore it is studied superficially. Instead, all grammar handbooks dealing with Ibero-Romance languages devote much space to the concept of periphrasis. Anyway it is necessary to refer to these two concepts, auxiliaries and modals, within the Galician grammar (as well as in the rest of the Ibero-Romance languages), since the situation is really much more complex than it seems from a typological point of view. Thanks to the re-definition of these two concepts regarding Galician, we will be able to analyse the existence of real auxiliaries in Galician; we will even go further to demonstrate that ter is a real auxiliary in Galician, yet with an incomplete paradigm, which makes it be much more 65

Xavier FrĂas Conde interesting. Anyway the concept of periphrasis is to be delimited, since it serves to explain all verbal clusters led by a lexical verb. Let's define it by saying that all periphrases are verbal clusters, but not all verbal clusters are periphrases. 4.2. A proposal of verbal typology To start with, the following graphic is proposed to classify the inexplicit concept of verb. This classification responds to both semantic and syntactic criteria, being the semantic ones predominant on top and the syntactic ones in the base to the extent that the semantic importance diminishes.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

4.3. Auxiliary verbs Although non-lexical verbs are a closed word class, their categorization is rather complex. The first step should be to establish the differences between auxiliary and modal verb. If we take English as a model, the primary auxiliaries are have, do and be, whilst can, must, ought to, etc. are auxiliary modals 11. The main difference lies on the double value of the first group, which can be used both as lexical and as auxiliary: EN: I have three children (→ lexical) EN: I have seen three children (→ auxiliary) This criterion does not seem to be valid for Romance auxiliaries, at least not completely. Let's us take the canonic Spanish auxiliaries: haber and ser. Haber is just used to make up perfect tenses, but out of there it has no lexical value in modern Spanish. It is also used in slight obligation periphrases together with the preposition de: haber de followed by infinitive. The other auxiliary, be, is used for diathetic purposes to make up the passive voice, but it is also a lexical verb. If we go a step forward and accept estar 11

A good explanation about the origins and the morpho-syntactic behaviour of these verbs can be seen on Santorini, Beatrice (2012): “Modals and Auxiliary Verbs in English” in Introduction to Syntactic Theory. Available on http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/250/ [August, 2012]

Xavier Frías Conde as an auxiliary (in this case the so-called continuous forms should also be deemed as a part of the basic conjugation, not just as a mere periphrasis, but we will deal with this matter later on), then estar is also both a lexical and an auxiliary verb. Therefore, the only weak point of the theory concerning Spanish is that haber is not a lexical verb. Nevertheless, there are reasons to consider that all three verbs, haber, ser and estar are real auxiliary verbs, where haber was a lexical verb in Old Spanish. This means that haber is the normal evolution of Latin HABERE, which already in Late Latin kept both natures, as a lexical and as an auxiliary verb. This situation still exists in most Romance languages, so that French avoir and Italian avere share this double category of lexical and auxiliary. The lexical evolution of Latin TENERE to express possession, typical of all Ibero-Romance languages and even Sardinian 12 and Neapolitan 13 forced HABERE to remain as a nonlexical verb. Meanwhile, Portuguese gave a step forward and transformed ter < TENERE into a real auxiliary, so that the principle of auxiliaries also being lexical verbs is completely fulfilled. 12

The value of tènnere is formalised in standard Sardinian: tèngio ganas de ti bìere (= I feel like seeing you), so that àere is used as an auxiliary: apo biu a Maria in sa praia. However, àere can also be used as a lexical verb to express possession, since that is the normal use in the Northern dialects. Therefore, to express possession both verbs are correct: No tèngio / apo sòngiu (=I am not sleepy), but only àere works as an auxiliary: No l'apo / *lu tèngio biu. (=I havent seen it). 13

Non tengo moglie or tu non tieni amici are usual forms. This use is even maintained in regional Italian.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs Therefore, if haber is analysed from both a comparative and diachronic point of view, there are reasons to accept it as a full auxiliary, more specifically, a proper one, yet the possibility of tagging it as a modal cannot be left out (see beneath). 4.4. Modal verbs According to the previous definition, modals can never be lexical, so they are absolutely dependent from a real lexical verb. English (as well as Germanic languages in general) has largely developed this category, but it is not so clear in Romance. As for Galician, verbs which clearly depend on a lexical verb since they have no meaning for themselves are only three: poder, deber, soer. These same three verbs are in Spanish: poder, deber, soler. In Catalan caler should apparently be added to the list, since it is usually followed by an infinitive. CT: Cal fer les coses amb mĂŠs atenciĂł [=It is necessary to do things more carefully] However, a subjunctive-clause is also possible: CT: Cal que vinguis una mica mĂŠs aviat [=It is necessary for you to come a bit earlier]

Xavier FrĂas Conde which is not normal in Romance languages (except for Romanian). Besides, it is used even with a Noun Phrase: CT: Em cal una feina nova [= I need a new job] Those uses are equivalent to French falloir, which can equally be used lexically: FR: Il me faut plus de patience [= I need <to be> more pacient] For these reasons, caler cannot be considered a modal verb. Despite our previous defence of haber as an auxiliary in Spanish, there are also reasons to consider it as modal verb if analysed only from a synchronic point of view, since it cannot be use lexically any longer in modern Spanish. Galician soer is not as usual as Spanish soler, neither is Catalan soler. Galician uses adoitar, which could also be taken as a modal, since it is never used lexically: GL: A xente adoita pasar o dĂa na praia [= People spend most of the day on the beach] The same thing occurs with acostumar in Galician or costumar in Portuguese, both of them having a certain parallelism with English used to. 70

Some Notes about Galician Verbs Galician haber should be considered a modal, since it is used to express self-imposed obligation in the first person (close to future value), and advice in the second person, followed by indicative: GL: Hei falar con el dese asunto. [= I must talk to him about this matter] GL: Heiche dicir a verdade. [= I should tell you the truth] GL: Has ir pensando en procurar outro traballo. [= You should think about finding another job] One last verb should be added to this list: ter que (Spanish tener que), having a meaning similar to deber. It should be deemed that ter and ter que are factually different verbs. 4.5. Improper auxiliaries This is the last group of verbs. According to traditional grammars, verbs like comezar (a), acabar (de), ir, andar a, vir de, etc. are semi-auxiliaries. As a matter of fact, that is a melting-pot of lexical verbs which may take up the role of an auxiliary verb, always followed by a non-finite form in all Romance languages (except in Romanian). All these structures are vaguely known as periphrases, all of them catalogued semantically according to the different nuances they add to the lexical verb, most of them related to verb aspect. 71

Xavier Frías Conde Improper auxiliaries exist in English, too. A construction with begin to can be considered like that. However, it seems Ibero-Romance languages have developed a larger amount of these improper auxiliaries. Galician shares most of them with the rest of the Ibero-Romance family, though we cannot forget mentioning an exclusive improper auxiliary: dar + infinitive, meaning “not to achieve to”, frequently in negative: GL: Non dou atopado un mecánico. [= I cannot find a mechanic] 4.6. Into a “definite” list of Galician proper auxiliaries We have already mentioned that the list of “official” proper auxiliaries ought to be filled in with the following verbs: ser, estar, ter, ir. Given that ser is generally accepted as the auxiliary to make up passive sentences, we will just concentrate on the three other verbs 14. 4.6.1. Estar as auxiliary for the continuous forms The so-called continuous forms in Galician (as well as in Spanish and Portuguese within the Ibero-Romance family, or Italian and Sardinian in a neighbouring area) are used to reflect 14

Canonically Portuguese grammars count four auxiliaries: ter, ser, estar, haver. There should be no problem to consider haber an auxiliary verb in Galician, as well, but we'd rather classify it as a modal.

Some Notes about Galician Verbs a type of verbal aspect which is virtually ignored by most grammars. When dealing with aspect, most handbooks refer to perfective and imperfective, which are clearly different in the past times in all Romance languages (a difference conserved from Latin CANTAVI versus CANTABAM). Imperfect is the unmarked aspect [+marked], while perfect is the marked one [marked]. During their further evolution, some of the Romance languages (the ones of the Iberian and the Italian Peninsulas) also developed a second type of aspect responding to the features iterative [+iterative] versus punctual [-iterative]. And it is here where those Romance languages meet with English, the only Germanic language that possesses the same aspectual category (we will deal with these matters further on). That causes a huge complexity of paradigms, whose comparison shows the lack of equivalence between the different languages. Let's take Galician as a language possessing both aspects ([± imperfective] [± iterative]) in confrontation with two other languages possessing only one, but of different nature (English [± iterative]; French [± imperfective]).

Xavier Frías Conde French

Galician

je travaillai [j'ai travaillé]

traballei

English I worked

traballaba je travaillais

estaba a traballar I was working estiven a traballar

The opposition [+iterative] vs. [-iterative] turns out to be as crucial in these Southern Romance languages as it is in English, thus it is a part of most verbs (take into account that in Romance, as in English, not all verbs present an iterative aspect; verbs like need, want, seem or care as deemed noncontinuous, yet Romance languages do not seem to be so strict, since the continuous forms could be used in Galician, at least in more cases than in English: GL: Este auto está a precisar que o laven de vez [= This car is beginning to need an urgent washing] GL: Está a me parecer que es un mentireiro [= Now it seems to me you're a liar] 4.6.2. Ter as an auxiliary Galician grammars firmly state that compound tenses do 74

Some Notes about Galician Verbs not exist in Galician. This matter requires a much more detailed analysis, since the existence of ter as an auxiliary in Galician has not been accurately described. On the one hand, Galician possesses fewer compound tenses than Spanish. This can easily checked in the following graphic: Spanish

Galician

He visto Vin Vi

Observe that Galician, as opposite to both spoken French and Italian (at least the Northern varieties), prefers simple tenses to compound ones, so that the distinction between simple and compound disappears, but in different directions if compared with Spanish: Galician Falei

Spanish

French

He hablado

J'ai parlé

Hablé

The well-known trend of Galician to avoid compound forms explains the conservation of the original Latin pluperfect as a simple tense: cantara, bebera, partira. It also true that constructions such as teño visto, teño falado do express habits, therefore the traditional tag of 75

Xavier Frías Conde periphrastical constructions may be accurate, they are by no means compound forms in Galician. However there are a series of questions which are not usually solved by traditional grammars referring to certain uses of ter which make us think of a real auxiliary. First of all, the previous periphrastical construction loses its original value of expressing habits if used negatively: GL: Non teño falado con el desde hai meses. [= I haven't spoken to him for months] Let us remark that the simple preterite could not be used in this context when a specific time expression is present: GL: *Non falei con el desde hai meses. The sentence containing teño falado really seems to have a compound tense. On the other hand, there is some other cases in which ter cannot be interpreted in any other way as an auxiliary. In conditional clauses of type III (impossible conditions), Galician uses compound forms with ter): GL: Se Xoán fose máis antento co que di, non pasaría isto (Type II) [= If John paid more attention to his words, this wouldn't occur] GL: Se Xoán tivese sido máis atento co que 76

Some Notes about Galician Verbs dicía, non tería pasado isto (Type III) [= If John had paid more attention to his words, this wouldn't have occurred] Or as compound future and conditional tenses whenever it's necessary to have a past time perpective: GL: Cando volvas / volveres por aquí en xuño, xa terán rematado /* rematarán as aulas. [= When you get back in June, lessons will already be over] To sum up, the paradigm of compound tenses in Galician is not complete, if compared with Spanish:

simple

Present

Preterite

Imperfect

Future

Conditional

falo

falei

falaba

falarei

falaría

[falara]

terei falado

tería falado

Indicat. comp. simple

fale

falase

falar

comp.

teña falado

tivese falado

tiver falado

Subjunct.

Compare it with its Spanish equivalent:

Xavier Frías Conde

Indicat.

Subjunct.

Present

Preterite

Imperfect

Future

Conditional

simple

hablo

hablé

hablaba

hablaré

hablaría

comp.

he hablado

hube hablado

había hablado

habré hablado

habría falado

simple

hable

hablara

comp.

haya hablado

hubiera hablado

4.6.3. Ir as an auxiliary This verb fulfils the conditions established for auxiliary verbs. Ir is used, as in most Romance languages, to express future, normally near or immediate future. In the spoken language is replacing the synthetic forms of the paradigm, which may sometimes sound as too formal. Traditional grammars, not only of Galician, but also of the rest of Ibero-Romance languages, consider ir + infinitive constructions as a mere periphrasis, but because of its semantic and syntactic properties, it is a full auxiliary verb. GL: Vou visitar os meus pais na casa da serra. [= I'm going to visit my parents to their house in the mountains] 4.6.4. As a conclusion All the Galician auxiliary verbs fulfil a clear role. Apart from their morphological features, they also perform categorizing roles that can be summarised as follows: 78

Some Notes about Galician Verbs • • • •

ser: diathetiser, i.e., it serves to form the passive voice ter: tense-maker, it serves to form compound tenses. ir: another tense-maker. estar: aspectualiser, i.e., it serves to express the aspectual category [±iterative]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

5. Verbal Aspect: Classification and Typology

5.1. Aspect in Traditional Grammar Handbooks Most Romance grammar handbooks pay little or no attention to aspect. It is mostly mistaken with tense, which is a way to not appreciate the richness of this so-called verb accident. Galician, as most Romance languages, shows an amazing diversity of aspect expressions. Thus it is interesting to accompany the study of the Galician aspect together with the situation in other Romance languages, as well as other nonRomance ones, since it shows the difficulties emerging in translation and the need to use other kind of lexical and syntactical resources in languages lacking verbal clusters to express the different nuances of aspect. The usual confusion between aspect and tense tends to kept in more recently published handbooks. That is why it ought to be taken into account the definition of aspect 15: Aspect refers to the internal temporal constituency of an event, or the manner in which a verbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s action is distributed 15

Harrison, Rick. Verbal Aspect. (2006). http://www.rickharrison.com/language/aspect.html

Available

also

on:

Xavier Frías Conde through the time-space continuum. Tense, on the other hand, points out the location of an event in the continuum of events. Be advised that many of the verb forms which are traditionally called “tenses” in grammar books and foreign language text-books are actually aspects; the traditional terminology is misleading. The distinctions between she read that book, she used to read such books, and she was reading that book when I entered the room are aspectual distinctions rather than differences of tense.

Along this chapter we will concentrate on just three kinds of aspects, though it is possible to set some more 16. Traditional grammar text-books mention the different verb aspects, namely, tense, aspect, mood and voice (diathesis). However, as it has just said, there is no clear difference made between tense and aspect. From a historical point of view, only one type of aspect, perfective / imperfective is mentioned when dealing with past tenses. This is to be found mainly in Spanish and Portuguese handbooks, for which the distinction is rather simple: perfective aspect refers to completed actions or events, while imperfective aspect refers to uncompleted actions or events. This can be seen in these two examples: GL: O encoro perdía auga (> the water leak was constant) [= The reservoir had a water leak] GL: O encoro perdeu agua (> the water leak occurred just once) [= The reservoir had once a water leak] 16

For a rather complete classification of verbal aspect see: Garey B. Howard. (1957): “Verbal Aspect in French”. In Language. Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1957), pp. 91-110

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

But this distinction is too simple, since imperfective / perfective is not the same as imperfect/perfect (see below). Actually, the real difference between imperfective and perfective is much more complex. Perfective tends to mark a closed period: GL: Xoán estudaba matemáticas [= John studied / was studying Mathematics] This example does not show if the studying period is over, just that it lasted during a certain period of time. In tense clauses the imperfect tense is used to express simultaneity: GL: Xoán estudaba matemáticas mentres nós estudabamos literatura [= John studied Maths while we were studying literature] In many cases, imperfect also refers to past habits - which tends to be translated by means of English used to): GL: Xoán estudaba na biblioteca [= John used to study at the library] In the previous cases, the perfective form will have quite different values, usually referring to concluded events or activities and never to habits. It is wrong to believe that the category [± imperfect] is to be found only in past tenses. The use of present tense referring to future time is perfective, while present tense referring to present time is instead imperfective. This is so in the Slavonic languages:

Xavier Frías Conde CZ: Píšu pohádky [= I write / am writing stories] CZ: Napíšu pohádku [= I'm going to write a story] Compare it with Galician: GL: Escribo historias [= I write stories] → [+imperf.] GL: Mañá escribo unha historia [= Tomorrow I'm writing a story] → [- imperf.]

5.2. The implicit recognition of the iterative/punctual aspect There is another type of aspect that is only indirectly recognised in traditional handbooks. Under the denomination of aspectual periphrases, Spanish grammar handbooks distinguish between punctual and iterative actions or events, yet not at the same level as perfective/imperfective are shown, as if it were a second-class aspect whose paradigm includes a periphrasis (see above §4.6.1) Nevertheless its importance should be acknowledged on handbooks, at the same level as perfect/imperfect. Otherwise it would be impossible to distinguish between: GL: O neno xoga ao fútbol [= The boy (usually) plays football] GL: O neno está a xogar ao fútbol [= Children are play footbal (now)] However, French is a Romance language where the previous distinction can only established by means of adverbs 84

Some Notes about Galician Verbs or adverbials: FR: L'enfant joue au football tous les jours FR: L'enfant joue au football maintenant For the punctual aspect, French also knows the periphrasis ĂŞtre en train de, though it is not so usual. Actually it corresponds to other Romance periphrases such as Galician estar a piques de, Portuguese estar prestes a or Italian stare per, though in all these languages the aspectual value is different, they refer to something that is about to start, not that is really happening, though the origin of the French periphrasis is similar. Thus, this second type of aspect did not develop in all Romance languages. It is virtually unknown in French and Romanian, being a complete innovation of Romance languages, since Latin ignored it. 5.3. Still a third type of aspect? There is a third kind of aspect that is absolutely ignored by traditional handbooks, i.e., as another type of verbal aspect, being just considered a variation of tense. In this case we are dealing with a difference in perspective that is not expressed in all Romance languages in the same way, whereas Galician shows its own features, rather different from the neighbouring languages. In order to introduce this third type of aspect, we will use Spanish, since it turns out much more suitable than Galician. Observe the difference between these two sentences, which actually express the same the difference as their English counterparts: 85

Xavier Frías Conde

ES: He vivido diez años en Madrid [= I've lived / been living in Madrid for ten years] ES: Vivín en Madrid dez anos [= I lived in Madrid for ten years] In both Spanish and English, the first sentence expresses that the fact of living in Madrid has not finished, while the second one expresses that the period in which the speaker lived in Madrid is over. The tags for this third type of aspect are perfect and imperfect, not to be mistaken with perfective and imperfective. Therefore, in order to avoid misunderstandings, the perfect / imperfect will be here referred to as +complete / – complete, so that the idea to transfer is that the perfect aspect expresses an accomplished event (or action), while the imperfect will express an unaccomplished one. As it was mentioned before, the past tense does not always reflect the accomplished/ unaccomplished relationship in Galician (see above §4.6.2), though it does in other tenses, such as the future: GL: Os rapaces xogarán o partido ás nove [= The children will play their match at nine] GL: Mañá a estas horas os nenos xa terán xogado o partido [= Tomorrow by this time the children will have played their match]

Some Notes about Galician Verbs 5.4. Into a typology of aspect in Galician Accordingly, our analysis of the three main types of aspect to be found in Galician can be represented with the following outline: a) Concerning the fulfilment: perfective / imperfective [±perf]: falei ~ falaba b) Concerning the duration: durative / punctual [±durat]: falo ~ estou a falar c) Concerning the completion: perfect (completed) / imperfect (uncompleted) [±comp]: falaría ~ tería falado We deem these three types of aspect as primary in Galician, given that they are expressed either by means of the paradigm or auxiliaries; other kinds of aspect require periphrases (compare the aforementioned estar a piques de [=to be about] or even empezar a [=to begin to]), for which reason we deem them as secondary verbal aspects. Tagging turns out quite useful to highlight the aspectual differences of tenses. Thanks to it the combination of several aspects in just one verbal form can be represented. These are some examples of it: Estabamos a ter

We were having

[-perf], [+ dur], [-comp]

Estiven a ver

I was seeing

[+perf], [+ dur], [-comp]

Non teño visto

I haven't seen

[-perf], [- dur], [-comp]

Traballaría

(S)he would work [± perf], [-dur], [-comp] 87

Xavier Frías Conde Tería traballado Tería estado traballar

(S)he would have [± perf], [-dur], [+comp] work a (S)he would have [± perf], [+dur], [+comp] been working

Some Notes about Galician Verbs

Bibliography

ALARCOS LLORACH, Emilio. Gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 2000 AREAL, Américo. Curso de português. Porto: ASA Editores, 2004 ARRUDA, Lígia. Gramática do Português para Estrangeiros. Porto: Porto Editora, 2000 COSERIU, Eugenio. El sistema verbal románico. Madrid: Siglo XXI., 1996 CUNHA, Celso; CINTRA, Lindley. Nova Gramática do Português Contemporâneo. Lisboa: Edições João Sá da Costa, 2005 DELATOUR, Y.; JENNEPIN, D.;

LÉON-DUFOUR,M.;

TEYSSIER, B. Nouvelle Grammaire du Français. Paris: Hachette, 2004 FALZONE, Giovanna. Grammatica pratica della lingua 89

Xavier Frías Conde italiana. Milano: La Spiga, 1996 FREIXEIRO MATO, Xosé Ramón, Gramática da lingua galega I, Fonética e fonoloxía, Vigo: A Nosa Terra, 1998 FREIXEIRO MATO, Xosé Ramón, Gramática da lingua galega II, Morfosintaxe, Vigo: A Nosa Terra, 2000. FREIXEIRO MATO, Xosé Ramón, Gramática da lingua galega III, Semántica, Vigo: A Nosa Terra, 2001. FREIXEIRO MATO, Xosé Ramón, Gramática da lingua galega IV, Gramática do texto, Vigo: A Nosa Terra, 2003. FRÍAS CONDE, Xavier. Curs de lingüística iberoromànica. Andorra la Vella: Govern d´Andorra, 2007 FRÍAS CONDE, Xavier. An Introduction to Functional Categorial Grammar. Palma de Mallorca: Bubok, 2009 FRÍAS CONDE, Xavier. Compendio de gramática galega. Pontevedra: Romania Minor, 2010 90

Some Notes about Galician Verbs FRÍAS CONDE, Xavier. Cuestións de lingua galega. Pontevedra: Romania Minor, 2011 a FRÍAS CONDE, Xavier. Ischemas de limba sarda (iscriidura e paradigmas). Pontevedra: Romania Minor, 2011 b GANHO,

Ana

Sofia;

McGOVERN,

Timothy.

Using

Portuguese. A Guide to Contemporary Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 GOGA, Mircea. Gramatica limbii române. Bucureşti: Editura NICULESCU, 2007 HARRISON, Rick. Verbal Aspect.. 2006. Available also on: http://www.rickharrison.com/language/aspect.html [August 2012] GÓMEZ TORREGO, Leonardo. Gramática didáctica del español. Madrid: SM, 2002 GÖNCZÖL-DAVIES, Ramona. Romanian. An Essential Grammar. New York: Routledge, 2008. LAUSBERG, H. Lingüística románica. T. II. Madrid: Gredos, 91

Xavier Frías Conde 1993 LEPSCHY, Laura; LEPSCHY Giulio. La lingua italiana. Milano: Bompiani, 2002 LINSKY, Leonard. Reference and Modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. OSTRÁ,

Růžena;

SPITZOVÁ,

Eva.

Úvod

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románských jazyků. Brno: Vydavatelství Masarykovy univerzity, 1995 RADFORD, A. Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English. A Minimalist Approach. CUP. Cambridge. 1997 SARMIENTO, R. SÁNCHEZ, Aquilino. Gramática básica del español. Norma y uso. Alcobendas: SGEL, 2002 SANTORINI, Beatrice (2012): “Modals and Auxiliary Verbs in English” in Introduction to Syntactic Theory. Available on http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/250/ [August, 2012] ŠABRŠULA, Jan. Vědecká mluvnice francouzštiny. Praha: 92

Some Notes about Galician Verbs Academia, 1984 VALOR, Enric. Curs mitjà de gramàtica catalana. València: Papers bàsics 3i4, 1999 WHITLAM, John. Modern Brazilian Portuguese Garammar. New York: Routledge, 2011 XOVE, Xosé, ÁLVAREZ, Rosario, Gramática da lingua galega, Vigo: Ed. Galaxia, 2002. ZAVADIL, Bohumil. Kategorie modality ve španělštině. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1980 ZAVADIL, Bohumil; ČERMÁK, Petr. Sintaxis del español actual. Praha: Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2008

Xavier FrĂas Conde

Index Foreword 1. An Overview of the Galician Verbal Paradigm 1.1. An Introduction to the Galician Verb 1.2. Compound forms 1.3. The Paradigm 2. Some Considerations about the Use of Subjunctive Mood in Galician 2.1. The complexity of the subjunctive mood. 2.2. Improper Use of Subjunctive 2.3. Subjunctive among other Moods 2.4. The realis ~ irrealis tag 2.5. Subjunctive Mood in Main Clauses 2.5.1. First type 2.5.2. Second type 2.5.3. Third type 2.6. Structural Subjunctive 3. An Overview of the Use of Subjunctive in Galician 3.1. The Framework for the Approach to the Study of Subjunctive 3.2. The Subjunctive in Completive Clauses 3.2.1. Completive Type I Clauses 3.2.2. The Consecutio Temporum in Completive Clauses 3.2.3. Completive Type II Clauses 3.2.4. Subjunctive in Relative Clauses 3.3. Subjunctive in Attached Clauses 3.3.1. Subjunctive in Adjunct Clauses 3.3.2. Subjunctive in Topic Attached Clauses 94

Some Notes about Galician Verbs 3.3.2.1. Time Clauses introduced by cando and mentres 3.3.2.2. Conditional and Modal Clauses 4. Modal and auxiliary verbs in Galician 4.1. The concepts of auxiliary and modal 4.2. A proposal of verbal typology 4.3. Auxiliary verbs 4.4. Modal verbs 4.5. Improper auxiliaries 4.6. Into a â&#x20AC;&#x153;definiteâ&#x20AC;? list of Galician proper auxiliaries 4.6.1. Estar as auxiliary for the continuous forms 4.6.2. Ter as an auxiliary 4.6.3. Ir as an auxiliary 4.6.4. As a conclusion 5. Verbal Aspect: Classification and Typology 5.1. Aspect in Traditional Grammar Handbooks 5.2. The implicit recognition of the iterative/punctual aspect 5.3. Still a third type of aspect? 5.4. Into a typology of aspect in Galician Bibliography

The issues studied in this book are certain topics that require much more attention in Galician Linguistics. This books deals with time (simple and compound tenses), mood (mainly subjunctive), auxiliary and modal verbs and paradigms and aspect, analysed from a different approach, the one concerning Functional-Categorial Grammar. Xavier FrĂas Conde teaches Galician and Portuguese at the Spanish UNED. He is specialized in Ibero-Romance Linguistics; he is also a writer and a translator.