The expression of futurity in reporting texts: some remarks on the verbal forms of European Portuguese

Abstract

European Portuguese has a diverse set of verb forms that refer to prospectivity, including the futuro simples (simple future), the structure ir (‘go’) (in the present or in the future) + infinitive and the presente do indicativo (simple present) with a futurate meaning. All these forms show clear divergences in meaning, although they also share relevant common properties. Based on the analysis of a corpus consisting of 18 reporting texts, we tried to account for the similarities and differences between the structures in question, as well as the relationships they establish with each other. Accordingly, we found that, although these constructions are often used to locate the situations with which they combine in an interval subsequent to the moment of utterance, each of them presents its own defining characteristics: ir (‘go’) + infinitive is mainly restricted to the expression of temporality; the simple future combines temporal and modal values and the present with a futurate meaning indicates posteriority in a present domain. The contrasts between these configurations are further confirmed by the combinatorial and interpretative divergences that occur in the context of modal verbs such as poder (‘may’) and dever (‘must’). In general terms, and based on the relations between the different tenses under consideration, we can say that the expression of futurity in European Portuguese seems to be in a constant process of readjustment, and it is essential to consider the contribution of other factors, such as temporal adverbials, the lexical properties of some verbs or the discursive context, for the full understanding of temporal organisation within texts.