Complex copula systems as suppletive allomorphy

Glossa

Neil Myler¹ 

[1] Boston University, 621 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA 02215;

关键词: copulas;    possession;    predication;    Late Insertion;    syncretism;    suppletive allomorphy;   

DOI  :  10.5334/gjgl.214

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Languages are known to vary in the number of verbs they exhibit corresponding to English 'be', in the distribution of such copular verbs, and in the presence or absence of a distinct verb for possession sentences corresponding to English 'have'. This paper offers novel arguments for the position that such differences should be modeled in terms of suppletive allomorphy of the same syntactic element (here dubbed v'BE'), employing a Late Insertion-based framework. It is shown that such a suppletive allomorphy approach to complex copula systems makes three predictions that distinguish it from non-suppletion-based alternatives (concerning 'decomposition', 'possible and impossible syncretisms', and 'Impoverishment'), and that these predictions seem to be correct (although a full test of the 'possible and impossible syncretisms 'prediction is not possible in the current state of knowledge).

【 授权许可】

Unknown