Catalan
Page 49
L’amenaçaven amb l’expulsió. They threatened him with expulsion.
L’amenaçaven d’expulsar-lo. (? … amb expulsar-lo) They threatened to expel him.
Estic d’acord amb la teva sortida. I agree with your leaving.
Estic d’acord a sortir/de sortir. I agree to leave.
Alerta amb el gos! Watch out for the dog!
Alerta a relliscar! Watch out not to slip!
Other contexts where this is noted:
acontentar-se amb alguna cosa content oneself with something
acontentar-se de/a fer alguna cosa content oneself with doing something
haver-n’hi prou amb + noun phrase be enough with
haver-n’hi prou de/a + infinitive be enough to
tenir prou amb + noun phrase have enough with
tenir prou de/a + infinitive have enough with doing something
estar content amb + noun phrase be happy with
estar content de + infinitive be happy to
A few verbs take a preposition + infinitive object with the preposition being optionally either a or de. In all cases the use of de is formal, while a is appropriate at any level. The verbs are acostumar a/de ‘accustom (someone/ something) to’, ‘be accustomed to’, aprendre a/de ‘learn to’, atrevir-se a/de ‘dare to’, començar a/de ‘begin to’, forçar a/de ‘force to’, obligar a/de ‘oblige to’.
Acostumen a/de venir a les vuit. They usually come at eight.
Aprenia a/de llegir. She was learning to read.
S’atreviran a/de negar-s’hi una altra vegada? Will they dare to refuse again?
L’havien obligat a/de fer-ho. They had obliged him to do it.
Varen forçar-lo a/de declarar la seva inenció. They forced him to declare his intention.
20.3.1.2 Infinitive phrase object of preposition as adverbial adjunct
An infinitive phrase may be the object of a preposition as an adverbial adjunct. A wide range of prepositions can occur, and there is little remarkable about the construction. The subject of the infinitive is inferred to be whatever is appropriate to the context.
N’han anat venent exemplars fins a exhaurir l’edició.
They went on selling copies until the edition went out of print, (lit. until exhausting the edition)
Ho va afirmar malgrat estar convençuda del contrari.
She asserted it despite being convinced of the opposite.
Al cap de passar dos dies a la presó, frisava per poder tornar a córrer.
After spending two days in prison, he was anxious to be able to go running again.
En lloc d’insistir tant, ens valdria més buscar una solució de compromís.
Instead of insisting, it would be better for us to seek a compromise solution.
A base de triar totes les assignatures més lingüístiques, em vaig muntar una llicenciatura de lingüística general abans que una tal cosa existís.
Through choosing all the most linguistic courses, I constructed for myself a degree in general linguistics before such a thing existed.
A certain number of prepositions function to form an adverbial adjunct either with an infinitive or with que and a finite clause. Here is a list of the most common ones that admit both constructions:
a fi de a fi que so as to/so that
a menys de a menys que unless
abans de abans que before
amb amb que provided (that)
d’ençà de d’ençà que since
des de des que since
després de després que after
fins (a) fins que until
fora de fora que apart from/except for
malgrat malgrat que despite
per/de por de per/de por que for fear of
per perquè because (of) (see 14.1.4.2)
per a perquè in order to/in order that (see 14.1.4.2)
sense sense que without
per tal de per tal que so as to/so that
Where both constructions are available, the general preference is to use the infinitive construction when the subjects of the main clause and the adverbial are understood to be the same, and to use the finite adverbial clause otherwise.
Recullen llenya de la platja, per tal de fer-ne una foguera.
They collect firewood from the beach, in order to make a bonfire.
Fins tenir-ne els resultats, ens estimem més no fer comentaris.
Until we get the results, we prefer not to comment.
Fins que tinguem els resultats, no seria licit de fer comenatris.
Until we get the results, it would not be appropriate to comment.
Malgrat haver aprovat el disseny del projecte, el municipi encara no ha atorgat el permís de construir.
Despite having approved the project design, the council has not yet granted planning permission.
Malgrat que s’hagi aprovat el disseny del projecte, el municipi encara no ha atorgat el permís de construir.
Despite the project design having been approved, the council has not yet granted planning permission.
When the subjects are different, it is also possible to use an infinitive phrase with the subject expressed (after the infinitive: see 20.2.2iv). More investigation is needed of the constraints on these infinitive + subject constructions, and on the contexts in which they may be preferred.
Després d’anar-te’n tu, vindrà en Joan.
After you have gone, Joan will come.
Abans de venir en Joan, tu te n’havies anat.
Before Joan came, you had gone.
Malgrat haver-se aprovat el disseny del projecte, el municipi encara no ha atorgat el permís de construir.
Despite the project design having been approved, the council has not yet granted planning permission.
20.3.1.3 Infinitive in indefinite relative clauses and indirect questions
An infinitive may be used in an indefinite (non-specific) relative clause rather as it can in English (see 31.10ii); the subject of the infinitive is understood to be the subject (or indirect object) of the main clause.
No té ningú amb qui parlar.
She hasn’t anyone to talk to.
Necessito algú amb qui discutir alguns aspectes del projecte.
I need someone to discuss certain aspects of the proposal with.
Pregunta si hi ha cap prestatge on posar-lo.
Ask if there’s a shelf to put it on.
Likewise with indefinite free relatives (which overlap with indirect questions):
No trobava amb qui casar-se. She couldn’t find anybody to marry her.
No tenien a qui escriure. They didn’t have anyone to write to.
With indirect questions, com ‘how’ + infinitive seems normal in a variety of contexts:
No sé com anar a Olot. I don’t know how to get to Olot.
Vaig demanar com anar a Olot. I asked how to get to Olot.
Em van explicar com anar a Olot. They told me how to get to Olot.
With other question words, the infinitive is acceptable when the main verb is saber ‘know’ (or more specifically no saber ‘not know’):
No sabia amb qui fer l’article.
I didn’t know who to write the article with.
No sabem si anar demà a la biblioteca.
We don’t know whether to go to the library tomorrow.
No saps a quin diccionari buscar-lo?
Don’t you know which dictionary to look for it in?
No sap què fer/quan fer-ho.
She doesn’t know what to do/when to do it.
However, it is clear that many of the infinitive questions of English do not work when translated literally into Catalan: ‘She asked me when to arrive’ *Em va preguntar quan arribar → Em va preguntar quan calia arribar; ‘I showed him what to do’ *Li vaig ensenyar què fer → Li vaig ensenyar què havia de fer.
The whole matter of infinitives in relative clauses and questions in Catalan needs further investigation.
20.4 EN + INFINITIVE IN TEMPORAL ADVERBIAL PHRASES
The construction en + infinitive is equivalent in meaning to quan + inflected verb (literally most like English ‘on’ + gerund, but more frequently used). The construction is rather literary; an alternative with al + infinitive (which is regarded as non-standard) is somewhat more spontaneous, but could hardly be said to be popular or frequent in speech.
En estar malalt, el millor és cridar el metge. (= Quan algú està malalt, el millor és cridar el metge.)
When (some)one is ill the best thing is to call the doctor.
S’alegrà molt en veure el seu professor.
She was very cheered to see/when she saw her teacher.
The compound infinitive (haver + past participle) may be used to make explicit that the situation in the infinitive phrase precedes that of the main clause, but this sense is also compatible with the simple infinitive.
En haver tornat la família de la platja trucarem als nostres amics.
En tornar la família de la platja …
When the family have come back from the beach we’ll phone our friends.
In the standard language, these temporal phrases are the only cases where an infinitive can be preceded by preposition en (see 20.3.1.1 and 14.1.1.4).
20.4.1 TOT I + INFINITIVE IN CONCESSIVE PHRASES
In addition to the more common use of the gerund to make non-finite concessive phrases (22.2.4.1), the infinitive is also found in this function, introduced by the concessive tot i.
tot i haver captat el vots dels immigrants
despite having chased the immigrants’ votes
Tot i dir aquelles animalades va plantejar la qüestió prou sòlidament.
Despite saying those daft things he outlined the topic in a very sound way.
20.5 NOMINALIZED INFINITIVES
Some infinitives have become nouns in their own right: they admit a determiner, adjectives, and, in some cases, plural inflection. The subject or object of the infinitive, if present, is expressed in a de phrase. There are some forty or so of these completely nominalized infinitives. Their meaning is often specialized beyond a mere substantivization of their verbal notion.
aquells parlars de França
those dialects of France (from parlar ‘speak’)
en un obrir i tancar d’ulls
in an instant (lit. in an opening and closing of eyes)
Vam fer un bon esmorzar.
We had a good breakfast, (from esmorzar ‘eat breakfast’; similarly dinar ‘lunch’, berenar ‘tea’, ‘snack’, sopar ‘dinner’)
Teníem massa deures professionals. (from deure ‘ought’/‘must’, ‘owe’)
We had too many professional duties.
L’ésser humà necessita un mínim d’intimitat, (from ésser ‘be’)
Human beings need a minimum of privacy.
Li va donar les gràcies amb un somriure. (from somriure ‘smile’)
He thanked her with a smile.
al meu entendre (from entendre ‘understand’)
in my opinion
It is not unusual in both writing and speech for other infinitives to be nominalized with a singular masculine definite article (or occasionally another determiner), though normative grammarians recommend avoiding this construction if at all possible.
a cada sortida de la mestressa, a cada trucar a la porta …
at each appearance of the lady of the house, at each knock at the door …
Els calderers atabalen el veïnat amb el seu picar.
The boilermakers annoy the neighbourhood with their hammering.
per evitar que hom m’engavanyi el fruir tranquil del dia de demà
to prevent anyone’s constraining me from peaceful enjoyment of tomorrow
This last example where fruir has an adjective and a direct object in a de phrase is syntactically very similar to the fully lexicalized nominal infinitives mentioned above. We can say that nominalization of infinitives is an ongoing grammatical process in Catalan, but it should not be assumed that one can freely take any infinitive and turn it into a noun. In very many cases a noun derivationally related to the verb already exists and will be used in preference; the last example could well have said la fruïció tranquil·la del dia de demà.
In many such cases (though not all as the above examples show) the nominalized infinitive refers to the manner of doing something, rather than, or in addition to, the fact of it.
Aquell lluitar seu tan vigorós (= Aquella manera seva de lluitar tan vigorosa) li proporcionà la victòria.
That vigorous way he has of fighting earned victory for him.
No he vist mai un conduir tan perillós (= una manera de conduir tan perillosa).
I’ve never seen such a dangerous way of driving.
Unlike those seen at the beginning of this section, these nominalized infinitives do not accept plural formation (*Tenen uns conduirs molt perillosos) nor the postposition of their logical subject (*Aquell lluitar ell…). They must be differentiated from infinitives acting as subjects of main clauses, which are never introduced by an article or demonstrative:
Dir aquestes coses no t’ajudarà.Saying these things won’t help you. *El dir aquestes coses no t’ajudarà.
No m’agrada jugar a cartes.I don’t like card games. *No m’agrada el jugar a cartes.
Fer això no convé a cap preu.To do this is quite the wrong thing. *El fer això no convé a cap preu.
21 PARTICIPLES
This chapter covers the (past) participle and the so-called present participle in -ant, -ent.
21.1 (PAST) PARTICIPLE: GENERAL
For the morphology of the participle see 16.5.3; there are some additional observations in 21.1.1. The (past) participle is a form of the verb which, in some of its functions at least, is strongly adjectival. Catalan ‘past’ participles have two main functions:
(i) In combination with auxIIIary haver, and more rarely tenir or ser, to form the perfect and other compound tenses. The compound tenses of all verbs are formed with haver: the participle appears in its masculine singular form except for the particular cases mentioned in 21.1.2iv. In the less common perfect-tense formations with tenir or ser (21.1.2ii and iii) agreement of the past participle does occur. For detailed discussion of the compound tenses in general see 17.2.
(ii) The participle may function adjectivally, in which case it will agree in number and gender like any adjective: una solució atrevida ‘a bold solution’, arguments improvisats ‘improvised arguments’, benvolguts amics/ benvolgudes amigues ‘dear friends’, una desesperada temptativa ‘a desperate attempt’, and so on. The past participle of a transitive verb is passive, that is, when used adjectivally it modifies a noun which is the direct object of the verb in question, for example, uns temes molt debatuts ‘some much debated topics’.
As an adjective, a participle may in appropriate circumstances stand before a noun (see 4.2.1): els meus estimats amics ‘my beloved friends’, la controvertida decisió ‘the controversial decision’, una molt arriscada (però decidida) acció ‘a very risky (but resolute) action’. Further instances of participles which may also stand as true adjectives are:
abandonat abandoned / deserted
alarmat alarmed
allunyat remote
conegut (well) known
dedicat dedicated
degut due
elevat elevated
emocionat excited/moved
justificat justified
marcat marked
resignat resigned
suposat alleged/supposed
and many others. The meaning of many participles, however, ensures that they retain their verbal force so that they may not precede a noun:
una cama trencada a broken leg
una reunió ajornada a postponed meeting
papers llençats discarded papers
un document imprès a printed document
una nena pentinada a little girl whose hair has been combed
The participial adjectives, or adjectival participles, have the pro
perty that they may appear with ser without creating a passive sentence, thus: La teva reacció era exagerada ‘Your reaction was exaggerated’, El to era elevat The tone was elevated’, La seva cara m’era desconeguda ‘Her face was unknown to me’. Note L’orquestra era dirigida per X ‘The orchestra was conducted by X’ (passive) compared with the ungrammatical *L’orquestra era dirigida; dirigit is a non-adjectival (verbal) participle. The participles of some verbs may either be adjectival or form part of a true passive construction: only in context is it possible to determine whether oberta in La porta era oberta ‘The door was open(ed)’ is a descriptive adjective (‘open’) or a non-adjectival verbal participle ‘opened’. The passive voice is discussed in detail in 29.1 while subtleties of adjectives used with the verbs ser and estar are dealt with in 30.5.
Adjectival participles may, like other adjectives, become nouns when they are introduced by an article or demonstrative: un exIIIat ‘an exile’, un mort ‘a dead body’, (aquests) impresos ‘(these) printed papers’, els afectats d’aquest afer ‘those (who are) affected by this matter’. As in the last instance, such nominalizations often correspond to an English relative clause.