Abstract
This paper deals with two verbal forms which, despite being traditionally labelled as “non-finite”, display inflection/agreement. We will focus on the behaviour and origin of the inflected infinitive attested in Romance and in languages from other families, against which we analyse the novel inflected supine found in the north-eastern area where Romanian is spoken (comprising the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and the north-eastern part of the Romanian province of Moldova). The goal of the paper is to identify the common paths of diachronic change of these verbal forms and to put forward a formal account of the observed diachronic changes. From a diachronic perspective, our analysis shows that the functional structure of non-finite forms may become more enriched, a conclusion that is at odds with traditional findings, which generally argue for simplification, not enrichment of functional structure. At the same time, the proposed analysis also offers some insights into the diachrony of the supine marker de.
Highlights
In this paper we present the most significant linguistic data related to the inflected infinitive found in Romance and in languages from other families, focusing our attention on the origin and evolution of these forms as they are presented in the literature
We have chosen to compare the Romanian supine with the inflected infinitive from other languages because, of the Romanian non-finite forms, only the supine appears to favour the attachment of inflectional markers, while the infinitive remains non-inflected for person and number
As we have seen the supine of the north-eastern varieties fundamentally contrasts with the Standard Romanian supine on the following points: (i) the extension of its distribution, (ii) its compatibility with pronominal clitics, the verbal negator nu and the aspectual clitic adverb mai, and (iii) gender and number agreement
Summary
In this paper we present the most significant linguistic data related to the inflected infinitive found in Romance and in languages from other families, focusing our attention on the origin and evolution of these forms as they are presented in the literature. We turn to a series of recent special usages of the Romanian supine in the Moldavian variety employed in The Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and northeastern Romania , which bring the Romanian supine closer to the Romance inflected infinitive. We have chosen to compare the Romanian supine with the inflected infinitive from other languages because, of the Romanian non-finite forms, only the supine appears to favour the attachment of inflectional markers, while the infinitive remains non-inflected for person and number.
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