Abstract
The two most commonly adopted basic positions on the origin of the Portuguese inflected infinitive are based on the work of José Maria Rodrigues (1914) and Theodoro Henrique Maurer (1968). The former, advocating a morpho-phonological («evolutionary») type of approach, held that the inflected infinitive is a direct descendant of the Latin imperfect subjunctive, both in form and in certain functions, presuming that this «subjunctive» remained in use until the 15th or 16th centuries. Maurer, however, supporting a «creationist» theory, claimed that this verbal mode expanded from the impersonal infinitive, which became inflected. Here we shall try to present empirical foundations for the theory which seems more realistic, according to data from medieval texts. We are convinced, in fact, that given the plausibility of both theories, the question cannot be resolved by morpho-phonological means, since the hypothesis of an inflected infinitive by analogical addition of personal suffixes leads to exactly the same result as the hypothesis of development from the imperfect subjunctive. Therefore, only a detailed analysis of the semantics and pragmatics of this verbal mode as seen in medieval Portuguese documents can lead to new and more valid results, since they can clarify whether, in use, the inflected infinitive is closer to the imperfect subjunctive or to the uninflected infinitive. As we shall see, a careful inventory of the occurrences of the forms of the inflected infinitive allows us to conclude that they are normally found in all characteristic structures of the uninflected (therefore, Romance) form, and are only seen exceptionally, and in later documents, in imperfect subjunctive constructions.
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