Use of Auxiliary Verbs in Roviance Languages. 4.^ 



to represent the compound tenses with sujn (as in Latin) and 

 the past participle, without adding to it any reflexive pro- 

 noun ; and the analytical tendency, which was to apply to 

 compound tenses the analysis made of simple tenses. The 

 former tendency had given : — 



morior {^inorio me), viortuus sum, 

 pariior (^partio me'), partitus sum ; 



the latter tendency gave : — 



moi-ior, viorio me, {ine) morlnus sum, 

 partior, partio me, (/«^) partitus sum, 



thus carrying the use of reflexive pronouns from simple 

 tenses to compound tenses. Hence there was a conflict 

 between these two tendencies, the one leaving out the ana- 

 logical reflexive pronoun of the compound tenses, while the 

 other had introduced it. But, of course, the meaning was 

 perfectly preserved, and remained the same in both cases. 



In this way could be explained the apparent inconsistencies 

 of the reflexive Romance conjugation. The Latin tendency, 

 which was weaker than the analytical, has gained the upper 

 hand in one class of verbs, called above " elliptical reflexive 

 verbs," and consequently the pronoun has been omitted : 

 Je me suis parti, je me suis alle, je me suis vemt, have settled 

 definitely mto je suis parti, je suis alle,je suis vcnit. 



But the tendency that had pushed the Spanish language 

 towards adopting the auxiliary Jiaber for the conjugation of 

 all the neuter verbs was also working in French, and our first 

 class of verbs having adopted, through Latin influence, etre, 

 the second class of neuter verbs adopted the auxiliary avoir. 

 In yet a third class of verbs neither tendency prevailed, and 

 to this very day they make use of the two auxiliaries. 

 Compare : — 



ye suis mont'e or pai inonte ; 



jfe suis descendu or pai desceiidu; 



ye suis reste or pai reste ; 



ye suis passe or pai passe, etc. 



Grammarians have decided that etre must be employed 

 when the verb marks state or condition, and avoir when it 



79' 



