How did the syntactical strucutre “me gusta” come to be in Spanish? It seems to be different from its Latin root and other Romance languages?

Question

In Spanish there is the structure "Me gusta" where "Me" is the *object*. But in other Romance languages such as Portuguese "Eu gosto (de isso)" or French "Je goûterai le soir bleu", "eu" and "je" are the *subjects*. Those words seem to all have evolved from the Latin word "gustare", so why in Spanish the structure was changed? What could be the historical evolution of this expression?

Answer 1

Yes, what you have said is true regarding Portuguese and French. However, Spanish is not unique regarding this structure, as in Italian we use the same exact syntax. Mi piace = me gusta , piacere reflects the object (mi), and it’s the same with gustar. This conjugation changes depending on the subject of the sentence.

for example:

me gustan las tortas. SP

mi piacciono i panini. IT

Here you can see that the subject of the sentence is “sandwich”, with the verb conjugated to agree with the subject, while reflecting this action back to the object.

As you mentioned that in French and portuguese, we use different structures, I do want to note that French does have the same structure as Spanish and Italian. It is not lesser used, it is lesser taught to foreign learners of French.

Using the example from above, we’re going to use the verb se plaire:

les sandwiches me plaisent

This is a different syntax from Italian and Spanish, yet it uses the same structure.

Answer 2

This is such a great question! I really love your curiosity. Although I can't tell you the history and evolution of this structure, perhaps it simply has to do with cultural mindset. In Spanish, for example, a person cannot "like" something. Something has to "please" you (which I can tell you already understand, grammatically). I know that in other languages, such as ancient or indigenous ones, some cultures do not have words for colors. Instead, they use the same word for something that is the color. I read once, for example, that a certain tribe in the Amazon doesn't have color words and that they would say "blood" (or "the color of blood") instead of "red". In their environment and lifestyle, colors are not things (nouns). Real things in nature are things they encounter in their daily lives, and therefore those people would otherwise have no use for color words (they probably don't use anything artificial or manmade, and therfore would never "create" colors).

In Spanish, when we use the verb GUSTAR, our mindset is that something or someone else outside of us is the catalyst for our emotional response (the feeling of being pleased by something or someone else). We are responding to something or someone else when we use the verb GUSTAR. We are not taking responsibility for the pleasing action (and that's why "me" in "me gusta" is not the subject).

I know this isn't a precise answer, but just some food for thought! I am just as curious as you :-).