The emergence of irei+infinitivo as an expression of the futurity in Portuguese

Abstract

The periphrasis ir+infinitive has replaced the synthetic future - I laugh with the temporal value of futurity in the oral language of Portuguese in all its diatopic varieties and in almost all registers, except in the most cultured register, and in the written language in registers not cultured according to a grammaticalization process common to several languages. In all the varieties of current portuguese the irei + infinitive periphrasis with the auxiliary verb in the future has emerged in the last century. The purpose of this article is to study the mode-temporal values of this construction that presuppose a further degree in the grammaticalization of ir + infinitive. To achieve our objectives, we carry out a brief synchronous and diachronic analysis of relevant occurrences based on reference corpora.