The inflected infinitive in the grammar of Brazilian Portuguese: issues on I-language and language teaching
Inflected infinitive; Brazilian Portuguese; I-Language; Core grammar; Periphery; Language teaching
In this work, we discuss the inflection or not of the infinitive in the context of sentences introduced by the preposition para. This first part of the MA dissertation focuses on the inflection of the infinitive according to grammarians, manuals of writing and generative linguists. As we will see, the interest of grammarians and linguists in the inflection or noninflection of the infinitive is a matter of great relevance, since the rules formulated by the former and the analyzes and reflections presented by the latter point to phenomena of variation resulting from factors and different contexts, which determine the consensus and disagreement in the use of the infinitive. Among grammarians, there are situations in which the use of the inflected or uninflected form of the infinitive is optional and the inflection of the infinitive is governed, in certain contexts, basically by stylistic factors. Among linguists, the fluctuation in the inflected infinitive is confirmed as evident. In the course of the research, we will look specifically at the context of the sentences introduced by the preposition para and will propose an analysis of the infinitive that describes contexts of use of this form and explains why the inflection is possible or not in the selected context. Therefore, the Generative Theory will be taken as a theoretical framework.