Towards a profile of the interpersonal organization of the Portuguese clause

Abstract

This paper aims at contributing to the description of Portuguese from the point of view of Systemic Functional Grammar, particularly in relation to the description of the clause as an exchange. While assuming that the interpersonal organization of the Portuguese clause involves phenomena that are similar across different languages, such as Mood systems, for instance, the paper wants nevertheless to show that there are systemic options (and their structural realizations) that are specific to Portuguese, particularly if compared to the same options in English, a language whose descriptions have so often and too strongly been imposed on Portuguese. Starting with a general description of some aspects of the Portuguese language, the paper then proceeds to a description of Mood types and the system of choices associated with them. By raising some questions and doubts concerning the description of the elements that in Portuguese carry the negotiation forward, the paper ends up proposing a description that sees Portuguese as a Finite-less language, that is, a language that does not have Finite, a function that proved to be appropriate for the description of the English language but fails to be so when considered from the point of view of Portuguese.