Aspectos da semântica e pragmática do Imperfeito do Indicativo

Abstract

The Imperfect Indicative in Portuguese (IMPF), like its congenerous forms in other romance languages, possesses a variety of values which range from the temporal-aspectual to the textual, modal and pragmatic; the author proposes to analyses these values in this article. To begin with, the opposition which is frequently established between dictic and anaphoric tenses is criticically evaluated; a description of the basic temporal and aspectual values of the IMPF is attempted. In the second part, the principal modal and pragmatic values of IMPF are discussed, exemplifiying their existence in other romance languages. In conclusion the author proposes a unified description, from a functional basis, of the temporal, modal and textual values discussed in the article.