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Nonverbal Predication in Amazonian Languages
Edited by Simon E. Overall, Rosa Vallejos and Spike Gildea
[Typological Studies in Language 122] 2018
► pp. 365–402

Chapter 14
Reconstructing the copulas and nonverbal predicate constructions in Cariban

| University of Oregon

This paper represents a first effort to characterize the different kinds of nonverbal predicate constructions in the Cariban family, to identify the functions served by copulas, and then to reconstruct the various attested copular forms to a limited number of source forms in Proto-Cariban. Given limitations of space, it is not possible to illustrate all of the cognate nonverbal predicate constructions attested in all of the languages, so the comparative look at the constructions is more programmatic, offering illustrations of the alternatives attested so far in the literature as a way to orient future field studies of nonverbal predication in Cariban languages. In contrast, the reconstruction of the copulas is as detailed as possible given the forms available in the current descriptive literature.

Keywords: nonverbal predicate constructions, Cariban, Proto-Cariban
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Syntax of nonverbal predicates in the Cariban family
    • 2.1The juxtaposition construction: NP predicates with no copula
    • 2.2Copular constructions: Adverbial predicates (PP or Adverb)
    • 2.3Existential constructions
    • 2.4Other constructions that use the copula (in more of an auxiliary function)
  • 3.Morphology of copulas in the Cariban family
    • 3.1Reconstructing three inflections with *a/*ap ‘cop1’
    • 3.2Reconstructing *eti ‘dwell’ > ‘cop2’
    • 3.3Looking for more cognates: Relic zones
  • 4.A first approximation of the story of copular innovation in Cariban
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 21 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.122.14gil
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