A Propos Des ‘Circunloquios’ Du Verbe Castillan Chez Nebrija

The purpose of this contribution is to study the ‘Nombre Participial Infinito’ (NPI), one of the elements of speech taken into account for the Castilian language in Nebrija’s Gramática Castellana. In order to facilitate – later on and to others – the approach of what originality this discrimination may have, we have first studied the suggested definition which is supposed to establish its existence, next to the participle, the substantive noun and the infinitive. Then we have closely examined the position it is given in the ‘circunloquios’ of the verb, and particularly in the periphrasis containing ‘aver’ in ante-position, compared, for the sake of the demonstration, with periphrases with ‘aver’ in postposition (future and conditional). We have come to some conclusions on the opinion Nebrija seems to have formed on the part played in it by the NPI placed after, at a time when its invariability can already be considered as permanent and the disappearance, to the benefit of ‘aver’ only, of the ‘aver/ser’ rivalry in the making of the compound forms of the active voice, as definitely established.