The use of syntax of the traditional Galician songbook of the nineteenth century in the cultured variety of modern Galician

Abstract

The language of the traditional Galician songbook of the nineteenth century can be characterised as reflecting a popular and colloquial variety of the language, this due to the way in which these anonymous literary texts were generated and transmitted throughout the Modern Age. However, within this markedly popular register fine examples of grammatical constructions and other usages which can be found, while wholly genuine and legitimate in terms of their place in the language, have been relegated to secondary status or indeed have fallen into disuse in Galicia due to the influence of Castilian Spanish, yet continue to be fully current in other countries where Galician-Portuguese is spoken today. This study will explore how the syntax of the songbook can serve to improve and enrich the current linguistic praxis of Galician, especially of its cultured variety. To this end, I will focus on a number of morphosyntactic phenomena that are normally taken to be idiosyncratic of the Galician-Portuguese linguistic system with respect to other Romance languages, including the inflected infinitive, the future subjunctive, the obligatory modal periphrasis ter de + infinitive, and the direct object (DO) with the feature [+ human] without the preposition a. Finally, I will turn our attention to certain verbal constructions with a notably popular flavour which lend the language an accented air of grammatical authenticity.