The Three Verbs of Location in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The three Portuguese verbs about be considered their locative functions, ser, estar, and ficar, have all undergone a semantic change since the medieval period. The verb ser Ibero-Romance represents a fusion of the two Latin verbs esse and sedere and frequently occurs Old Portuguese with the original Latin meaning to sit: fia cadeira em que see flu homem mui velho... (A Demanda do Santo Graal, f. 78, a, 209)1 siia em sua cadeira... (f. 50, b, 149). In addition retaining this meaning (at least the forms directly derived from sedere) and having the basic meanings of esse, it was also joined with the gerindio form periphrastic tenses (a function which the modern verb ser does not normally have): siia pensando tanto que... (f. 3, b, 9). It was also employed the general sense of location: quantos nas casa siiam foram maravilhados (f. 8, a, 25). These last two uses are generally associated with the modern language. Estar, on the other hand, could retain its etymological meaning, to stand: podiam se adur (f. 52, a, 153). seu cavalo era ja tam magro e tam lasso, que nom podia ja estar (f. 108, a, 309). It could also signify to halt, come a stop: quando el viu a batalha, estede por catalos (f. 102, b, 275). estade, dom Tristam, estade; mas el nem esteve (f. 124, b, 371). The verb ficar, from *FIGICARE, a frequentative form of FIGERE, to nail or to fasten (RE V 3290), is a doublet of fincar, to drive in or to insert (corresponding the Spanish hincar) and could have the same meaning as fincar the older language (especially the phrase os geolhos, the older equivalent of the modern Portuguese verb ajoelhar). Thus: fica ta langa em terra... (f. 184, d, 610). The significance to remain is already established, however: rogo-vos que o facades ficar (f. 10, b, 32). In Iberian Romance general there has been, as the centuries passed, an increase the functions of at