Subjunctive: Ha pasado mucho tiempo que decidieran...

Question

An article on Banksy called La fuerza del arte callejero in El País begins with the following sentence:

Ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que los chavales del Bronx decidieran arrancar el barrio de sus bisagras y llevárselo a dar una vuelta por Nueva York[...]

I don't usually have much trouble with the subjunctive, it all sort of makes sense to me, but I was a bit surprised to see that decidieran there, so maybe there's something I missed. Is it a typo (the author meant decidieron), or is it intentional? If the latter, would one of you helpful persons throw some of that helpfulness my way and enlighten me as to why the subjunctive is used there? Thanks.

Answer 1

MacFadden, your intuition with the subjunctive is fine, because it does not make sense. What happens is that the subjunctive in -ra ("decidieran") was not originally subjunctive (the original one was "decidiesen"), but pluperfect indicative. In the Middle Ages, "decidieran" actually meant "habían decidido", so the sentence is interpreted as:

...desde que los chavales del Bronx habían decidido arrancar el barrio

or even

...desde que los chavales del Bronx decidieron arrancar el barrio

This use was lost by the 17th, but Romantic writers from the 19th century decided to use it again to give their writings a Medieval touch with this ancient use, and even though grammarians advised against it (arguing that the Spanish tense system was complex enough without adding more to it), it not only remained in literature, but it spread to newspapers, where it is very popular. It has not been used in spoken Spanish for three centuries, though, and many grammars still recommend against it, and even call it pedantic.

Ah, this archaic usage of the imperfect is not possible with "decidiesen", as this form of the subjunctive has always been subjunctive.

Ah, that makes perfect sense. Thanks, Lazarus! - MacFadden, Oct 24, 2010

Answer 2

At first glance I though it was a mistake... it should have been "decidieron"...

but after reading it about... 10 times it doesn't sound that bad... but I don't know why...

Okay, thanks. I know how it is just knowing it sounds right but not being able to explain why. :) - MacFadden, Oct 21, 2010

Repeat any mistake enought times, and it will sound fine in the end, hehe. - lazarus1907, Oct 24, 2010

Answer 3

Just thought I'd bump this up now that some more people might actually be online (I asked it around midnight a few days ago). I'm still interested to know if anyone could explain this for me. Thanks.