Pest-OE/LIN/UI3213/2014This paper focuses on the study of a particular construction – haver ‘have’ (simple pluperfect) de (preposition) + infinitive – in two Portuguese texts dating from late 15th century. Since it combines values inherent to the pluperfect – past in the past – and to haver de – posteriority – the construction has a value of a ‘future in the past’. Part of the attestations of haver de + infinitive, however, show a nonactualization reading, while others appear to be ambiguous in what concerns the actualization / nonactualization of the situation. I argue that the very specific value(s) of this construction, with a predictable low frequency, impose a careful selection of the textual sources to be used, on the basis of their genre characteristics. I show furthermore that in some cases the accurate interpretation of the value expressed by a particular occurrence is only triggered by the narrative sequence, and thus the need to pay close attention to the specificity of the texts to be studied, given that they constitute the only witnesses to the ‘grammar’ of past language stages.publishersversionpublishe
