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Maria Santos
Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (docência) // CELGA-ILTEC da Universidade de Coimbra (investigação)
Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2808-4536
Vol 14 (2022): Estudos de Lingüística Galega, Pescuda
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/elg.14.8187
Submitted: 31-12-2021 Accepted: 17-05-2022 Published: 22-08-2022
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Abstract

After examining the terminus a quo of the usage of one pair of covariant periphrastic constructions within metalinguistic Portuguese discourse produced between the 16th and the 19th centuries– auxiliary verb estar + full or main verb in the gerund, and auxiliary verb estar + preposition a + full or main verb in the infinitive –, we collected the occurrences of those constructions in the first Portuguese contemporary novel, Viagens na minha terra, published in Portugal in the first half of the 19th century, in order to describe an item of the dynamics of the Portuguese language reflected in that important work affiliated with the Romantic movement. Within the theory of linguistic variation and change, we gave priority to the realization of an internal aspectual variable.