The Luso-Brazilian Use of Estar with a Predicate Nominative

Abstract

The history of the well-known dichotomy in Iberian Romance between ser and estar is largely a process whereby estar has gradually assumed functions formerly belonging ser. In medieval Portuguese, seer (which could also retain its etymological meaning, to sit)' is used in situations where modern practice would demand estar: . . e para se seer a seu seruigo em todo o tempo,2 .. . em lhe seemdo assi fallamdo.3 In many respects the substitution of estar for the medieval uses of ser has come be taken for granted; in some matters, however, such as the expression of location, Portuguese has been more conservative than Spanish. Since ser is basically the verb of equivalence or identity, it is used countless times join the subject the predicate nominative (type: Joaio e meu irmao). This is the last of the functions of ser that one would expect, a priori, be invaded by estar,4 and yet, a much greater extent in Portuguese than in Spanish, estar has encroached upon the use of ser as copula and therefore appears with a substantive in the predicate. The purpose of the present paper is analyze this situation as it occurs in Portuguese prose of the last hundred years and then, in each case, make a comparison with the usage in Brazilian writers, also of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in order observe what basic differences exist and whether the practice in question has been restricted or extended in Brazilian Portuguese.5 In each instance the Portuguese usage will be discussed first. 1. Estar, with a personal subject, often indicates a present stage of development and is the equivalent of to have become. The two verbs can alternate in the same passage: