The Portuguese pluperfect: diversity of forms, polysemy and interaction with adjuncts

Abstract

This paper discusses the contemporary use of the Portuguese simple and two compound pluperfect forms (with the auxiliary verbs ter, and haver) of the indicative mood in written texts. Four topics are addressed. First, the claim that the simple pluperfect is currently a defective paradigm lacking the third person plural; this claim is confirmed and substantiated by looking at specific distinguishing contexts in corpora. Secondly, the competition between the three pluperfect forms, in written contemporary European and Brazilian Portuguese; it is shown that – contrary to some frequent comments in the literature – all three forms still have widespread usage, and occur in a relatively balanced way, in the type of registers considered (newspaper writing, modern literary texts, modern literary translations), in both varieties of the language. Thirdly, as regards semantic polyvalence, the possible existence of a deictic rather than anaphoric (temporal) pluperfect; it is argued that this type of pluperfect does indeed exist, and deserves separate grammatical recognition. Fourthly, the well-known cases of ambiguity in structures with pluperfect and temporal locating adjuncts, where the latter can act either as markers of the past perspective point required by the pluperfect, or as markers of the location time of the described eventualities; facts in English and Portuguese are compared, with some differences highlighted.