Notes on negation in the Livro dos Oficios

Abstract

It is our purpose in this article to contribute to the study of two forms of negative polarity – ‘nothing’ and ‘never/ever’ – whose origin and semantic evolution will be examined by observing the meaning conveyed by the Latin expressions they derive from and how they came to be grammaticalized in Portuguese. For that purpose, we will analyse a restricted group of these forms, as found in the Portuguese translations of the treatises De officiis by Cicero and De beneficiis by Seneca, both attributed to Infant Dom Pedro. We seek to define the values these forms assume and assess whether they correspond to the values conveyed by the Latin texts.