Complex copula systems as suppletive allomorphy

Myler, Neil

doi:10.5334/gjgl.214

Cited by 28 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…As has been repeatedly noted in literature (e. g. Freeze 1992;Wang and Xu 2013;Myler 2018), in many languages locative predicates can easily give rise to existential interpretations. The subject of the locative predicate, the book in (3), can become a pivot of an existential predicate, as a book in (4).…”

Section: The Verb Taementioning

confidence: 54%

Existence, location, possession, and copula in Malabar Indo-Portuguese

Krajinović

2019

Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics

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This paper offers a diachronic and a contact-based analysis of existential, locative, possessive, and copulative constructions in Malabar Indo-Portuguese creole (MIP). The existential, locative, and possessive predicates are all expressed with the copulative verb tæ, and nominal and property-denoting predicates can either have the copula tæ or zero copula. I analyze these copulative constructions by establishing their sources in the Portuguese lexifier and Malayalam substrate/adstrate. I show that although the Portuguese verbs ter ‘have’ and estar ‘be’ have paved the way to the semantics of tæ, Malayalam had a strong impact on the morphosyntax and semantics of existential, locative, possessive, and copulative constructions in MIP. This influence is most notable in the case of possessives, which take dative subjects. These findings are compared to the relevant structures in other South Asian languages and show that the existence of locative possession is a strong areal feature of South Asia. I also show that the variability of copula usage in nominal and property-denoting predicates can be explained by variable input from Portuguese and Malayalam copulative constructions. One of the most salient features influenced by Malayalam is the choice of what are etymologically Portuguese nouns instead of adjectives in property-denoting predicates.

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Section: The Verb Taementioning

confidence: 54%

Existence, location, possession, and copula in Malabar Indo-Portuguese

Krajinović

2019

Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics

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“…In the Distributed Morphology framework (Halle & Marantz 1993 and subsequent work), it is possible to spell out formally distinct copular variants in different morphosyntactic environments, without assuming that copulas have lexical content (den Dikken & O'Neill 2017:25). Following Myler's (2018) approach of analyzing complex copula systems as suppletive allomorphy, I assume that the 3rd person singular present form of heit is encroaching on the paradigm of wízze in identificational copular clauses. 42 There is only one semantically vacuous copula BE in Wangerooge Frisian, which in the 3rd person singular present is spelled out as hat or is.…”

Section: Identificational-equatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…42 There is only one semantically vacuous copula BE in Wangerooge Frisian, which in the 3rd person singular present is spelled out as hat or is. 43 I assume with Myler (2018) that BE heads a vP (a light verb phrase) and that the small clause, which it selects, is a PredP (Predicate Phrase). Since (Wangerooge) Frisian is an OV language, the vP will be leftbranching.…”

Section: Identificational-equatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Naming Verb to Copula: The Case of Wangerooge Frisian Heit

Hoekstra

2023

J Ger Ling

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In the now extinct Frisian dialect of the island of Wangerooge, the naming verb heit ‘to be called’ had partially grammaticalized into a copular verb ‘to be’ competing, to some extent, with the original copula wízze ‘to be’. In this paper, I discuss the development and the status of the copula heit in some detail and consider what it might tell one about the taxonomy of copular clauses (Higgins 1979). I show that the functional change from naming verb to copula initially occurred in identificational copular clauses. From there heit spread to classifi-cational and specificational copular clauses, but not to predicational ones. This development suggests a principled distinction between predicational copular clauses on the one hand and identificational copular clauses (conceived as comprising classifying, specifying, and equating ones) on the other. This does not imply, however, that heit is an identificational copula or that it selects an identificational small clause. I analyze copular heit used with an identificational small clause as a suppletive allomorph of wízze ‘to be’.*

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“…A possibly related issue that cannot be addressed here is why v is realized as do (and not as be or have ) in the done ‐state, finite‐T, and British‐ do contexts. The pronunciation of v could be derived via selection in syntax of different forms of v; alternatively, it might be a language‐specific morphophonological fact that could be established by suppletive allomorphy (see Myler 2018 for recent discussion). An important consideration must be that it is possible to say Chapter 3 is done , with the same item do occurring in the no‐complement context as in complement‐XP contexts, meaning that the determinant of the form may be independent of the complement of the stative substructure (unless complement‐less be done involves ellipsis).…”

Section: The Syntax Of Auxiliary Do(‐ne)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Done‐State Derived Stative: A Case Study in Building Complex Eventualities in Syntax

Biggs

2021

Syntax

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A basic question for theories of the syntax–semantics interface is whether the relationship between the form and meaning of complex aspectual expressions is mediated by the pieces that make up hierarchical syntax or whether complex forms and their meanings can pair directly, in templatic or constructional representations, for example. This paper examines the string I’m done writing chapter 3 with this issue in mind. The (be) done V‐ing structure does not seem to have been analyzed before, and I refer to it as the done state. The done state expresses a complex stative eventuality. Notably, the transitive object of the done state can hold a target state, an unexpected interpretation given the ‐ing verb (contrast I’ve been writing chapter 3). Apparent form–meaning mismatches of this type are regularly taken as evidence for listed, constructional mappings. I show, however, that the done state has the syntactic pieces of a stative passive of a present participle, and I argue that the done state is a previously unnoticed type of derived stative. The analysis provides a compositional account of the structure’s semantics and morphology. I further argue that the syntactic items that make up the done state have the same properties that they have elsewhere in the grammar; there is no need to postulate new grammatical objects. The predictable properties of the done state find explanation in models in which complex eventualities are built up out of the minimal units that make up complex phrases.

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Complex copula systems as suppletive allomorphy

Cited by 28 publications

References 73 publications

Existence, location, possession, and copula in Malabar Indo-Portuguese

Existence, location, possession, and copula in Malabar Indo-Portuguese

From Naming Verb to Copula: The Case of Wangerooge Frisian Heit

The Done‐State Derived Stative: A Case Study in Building Complex Eventualities in Syntax

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