Peculiar grammatical features of each Romance language

greg   Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:51 pm GMT
je suis un idiote.
Sergio   Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:23 pm GMT
Salut greg,

>>J'aimerias pouvoir. Mais c'est *réellement* très compliqué. deux ou trois phrases n'y suffiraient pas — malheureusement...


Mais si t'y a le temps, je voudrais le savoir volontiers!!! ;)
Kelly   Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:34 pm GMT
2.- Is there an explanation for the "Mesóclise" in Portuguese when using the formal conjugation for the future and conditional? does this appear in any other Romance language?
example: tornar-se-ia vs. (Sp) se volvería


Mesoclisis in obsolete in Brazilian Portuguese, even in formal writing. The ''Folha de São Paulo'' Manual of Style says it should be avoided in this newspaper (one of the most important newspapers in Brazil).

TORNAR-SE-IA [obsolete] = IRIA SE TORNAR or SE TORNARIA [modern usage]
Sergio   Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:39 pm GMT
Hi Kelly,

Thank you for answering, but my question was not that. I already know that mesóclise is practically obsolete in Brazil.

My question was: what is the origin of mesóclise, and why does it only appear in the Portuguese language?

Cheers
Kelly   Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:40 pm GMT
Brazilian Portuguese is, like English, a language with widespread usage of progressive [continuous] forms.

In Brazilian Portuguese,

''você mente'' means 'you [always/normally] lie' while
''você está mentindo'' means 'you're lying'

this contrasts with Spanish, in which, you normally say MIENTES for both,
and progressive tense is optional, not obrigatory...Italian (and Continental Portuguese) follow this ''Spanish'' usage, but Brazilian Portuguese follows the English usage.