*PresParticiple
Brasilia Governor Bans Verb Form, Citing Inefficiency
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) - Brazil's Federal District Governor Jose Roberto Arruda “fired” the present participle from his administration, citing inefficiency.
“The present participle is hereby fired from all federal district entities,” the governor wrote in a decree posted on the government’s Web site last night. “As of today, it is forbidden as an excuse for INEFFICIENCY.”
Banning the verb form, which ends in “ndo” in Portuguese (“ing” in English), was done to prevent government officials from using continuous tenses to obscure progress - or the lack of it.
Follow the link above for more. This is something that maybe you would expect on Facebook, what with it's "is" requirements, but Brasilia? If they really want to combat inefficiency with tense, they should just ditch Portuguese, and switch to Tupinamba or Nheengatu or something, where tenses are only specified when absolutely necessary, and are otherwise left out and assumed from context.
Thoughts? ;) Is he just trying to mandate a change in the standard language, or something more? Can anyone find all the text to Decree No. 28.314?
Edit: Another question, isn't this participle more relied on in Brazil, as opposed to in Portugal? I swear I heard that somewhere, but I don't remember specifics.
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) - Brazil's Federal District Governor Jose Roberto Arruda “fired” the present participle from his administration, citing inefficiency.
“The present participle is hereby fired from all federal district entities,” the governor wrote in a decree posted on the government’s Web site last night. “As of today, it is forbidden as an excuse for INEFFICIENCY.”
Banning the verb form, which ends in “ndo” in Portuguese (“ing” in English), was done to prevent government officials from using continuous tenses to obscure progress - or the lack of it.
Follow the link above for more. This is something that maybe you would expect on Facebook, what with it's "is" requirements, but Brasilia? If they really want to combat inefficiency with tense, they should just ditch Portuguese, and switch to Tupinamba or Nheengatu or something, where tenses are only specified when absolutely necessary, and are otherwise left out and assumed from context.
Thoughts? ;) Is he just trying to mandate a change in the standard language, or something more? Can anyone find all the text to Decree No. 28.314?
Edit: Another question, isn't this participle more relied on in Brazil, as opposed to in Portugal? I swear I heard that somewhere, but I don't remember specifics.