1. The Copula Cycle: Features and Principles of Projection
Elly van Gelderen
17 June 2015
University of Greenwich

2. Outline A little on generative historical syntax:
ambiguity/reanalysis – features are crucial
English copulas: renewal + reanalysis
Examples of Grammaticalization and Linguistic Cycles: features + structure
The Demonstrative to Copula Cycle
Explanations and some challenges: Principles of Projection.

3. Model of language acquisition/change (based on Andersen 1973)
Generation n Generation n+1
UG UG
experience experience n
= =
I-language n I-language n+1
E-language n E-language n+1
+ innovations

4. Internal Grammar

5. Reanalysis is crucial L
Loss of manner; retention of Q-features

6. Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization is a unidirectional loss/change from semantic to formal (=grammatical) features.
For instance, a demonstrative with semantic features, such as a distal with [location, distance, entity], can be reanalyzed as having only the grammatical features [deictic, third] and then be a copula or article. The flavor of the copula can be:
+/-permanence, id/loc, +/-realis

7. Greenberg’s Demonstrative Cycle and additions
Demonstrative [i-phi]/ [loc] article Dem C copula [u-phi] [i-phi] [u/i-T] [u-phi] [loc] [loc/id] (Diessel 1999 gives 17 grammaticalization channels)

8. Grammaticalization tells us which features matter
Subject and Object Agreement (Givón)
demonstrative > third ps pronoun > agreement > zero
noun > first and second person > agreement > zero
Copula (Katz)
demonstrative
third person
adposition > copula > zero
intransitive verb
Noun (Greenberg)
demonstrative > definite article > ‘Case’ > zero
noun > number/gender > zero

9. And about processing/economy
Negative (Gardiner/Jespersen)
negative argument > negative adverb > negative particle > zero
verb > aspect > negative > C
(negative polarity cycle: Willis) CP
Adjunct AP/PP > ... > C
Future and Aspect Auxiliary
A/P > M > T (> C)
V > ASP

10. Indo-European copulas > English: Cyclical renewal of aspect/mood
No difference in copula depending on NP, PP, or AP predicate but inside the ‘be’ paradigm:
*es (< Dem)
*bheu `grow’ > Latin fui
> Old English `be, become’
*wes `remain, dwell’
(*sta ‘stand’ > estar (Spanish), tha (Hindi), tá (Irish))
*wert ‘turn’ > vartate (Sanskrit), wairþan (Gothic), and weorðan (OE)

11. Jost 1909, Campbell 1959, Wischer 2010, Petré 2013
In Gmc s/b/w-distinction is mood-based (mixed indicative and s- subjunctive)
OE: am, art, is, sind(on) vs beo ...
present/current situation future/generic
ME: am, art, is vs beo ...
present Sg Pl (later are)
Wischer (2010: 222): b-form in OE more frequent in Pl than Sg;
Petré 2013: 303: b- used in ME for pl indic
So GMc mood > OE future > ME plural
Currently: again mood-based, be, been, being

12. Gmc and Early English > Mod English
New copulas arise for aspect and mood:
remain, stay, appear, sound, ... (60 or so)
Other languages select +/- permanence or the type of predicate
English:
identifying: can only be be. (Huddleston & Pullum 271)
classifying: aspectual, modal
location: aspectual

13. The English copula appear < French intransitive ‘come into sight’
Ambiguity:
(1) Þat it may apere þat þe prescience is signe of þis necessite. (OED, 374 Chaucer Boethius v. iv. 162)
(2) And the Lord siȝ, and it apperide yuel in hise iȝen. (OED, a1425 Wycliffite Bible L.V. Royal Isa. lix. 15)
(3)I am afraid of making them appear considerable by taking notice of them. (OED, 1712 Steele Spectator 445.7) 

14. PP
in hise i3en
V DP
apperide it > DP copula PP
[change] [i-3S] or DP copula AP
[visual] [Th]
[uTh]

15. remain < Anglo-Norman ‘stay behind’: PP and AP
(1) so shall remayn be the grace of God all the days of myn liff (Visser I: 195, 1460, Paston 4.5)
(2) the great primar, whiche before daies I gave to my wif, remayn styll to her. (OED, 1513 Will of Robert Fabyan in R. Fabyan New Chron. Eng. (1811) Pref. p. vii)
(3) The lyppes of the membre remaynedene holy together. (a1450 Arderne 17th Internat. Congr. Med. (1914) xxiii. 121)

16. PP Pred
to her remayn
V DP [loc] DP PP
remayn primar [dur] primar to her
[location] [i-3S]
[duration] [Th]
[uTh]

17. Many other intransitives > copulas, e. g
Many other intransitives > copulas, e.g. stay < Old French (Latin stare)
late ME ‘to stop’ and keep the meaning of `stay/dwell’ and copula in:
(1) That this their meate may not stay long vndigested in their stomackes, they sup off the foresaid broth. (OED, 1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. i. 20)

18. Rest of the talk
Examples of Dem > Cop chosen from many language families: Afro-Asiatic, IE, Creole, Austronesian ... Explanation will in terms of features and projection/labeling Phrase to head but original flavor is kept

19. Old Egyptian (1) > Middle (2)
(1) rmt p-n ntr-w jp-w
man MS-PROX god-P MP-DIST
`this man.’ `those gods.’
(2) ̩tmj-t pw jmn-t
city-F be west-F
`The West is a city.’
(Loprieno 1995; 2001)
(3) p -w > pw
[i-3MS] [distal] copula (pst/pr)
Structurally: Specifier to head

20. Hebrew (Faltz 1973; Berman & Grosu 1976)
(1) david (hu) ha-melex
David SM the-ruler
‘David is the king.’
(2) hu melex 'al jisra'el
‘He ruled over Israel.’
(3) ‘ata hu ha-is
2SM SM the-man
`You are the man.’ (Katz 1996: 86-90)

21. Still pronoun because the lo negative precedes verb but not hu (Faltz: 7)
(4) *moshe lo hu ayef moshe NEG he tired (5) moshe hu lo ayef moshe he NEG tired `Moshe isn’t tired.’ The eyno negative is incompatible because it has a pronominal suffix: (6) *moshe hu eyno ayef moshe he NEG.3SM tired

22. Classical to Standard Arabic (cf. Eid 1983, Alsaeedi 2015)
Classical = pronoun
(1) allahu huwa ‘lhayyu
God 3MS the.living
‘God is the living.’ (Benveniste 1966 [1971: 165])
Standard = copula
(2) Anta huwa D-Dakii
2MS COP the-smart
`You are the smart one’
(Alsaeedi 31; newspaper 2012)

23. Hijazi Arabic (Alsaeedi 2015)
(3) ahmad ma hu(wa) ad-duktoor Ahmad NEG MS the-doctor `Ahmad is not the doctor.’ (Alsaeedi 39) ma + huwa/hiya, etc = mu/mi (4) ana mu ad-duktoor 1S NEG-be the-doctor `I am not the doctor.’ (Alsaeedi 40) (5) huda mi (ma hiya/mu) ad-duktoorah Huda NEG.be.F the-doctor-FS `Huda is not the (female) doctor.’ (Alsaeedi 41)

24. Egyptian Arabic (Edwards 2006: 51-3)
(6) a. `ana huwwa l-mas’u:l 1S he the-responsible
‘I am the responsible.’
b. il-mushkila hiyya T-Talaba
the-problem(FS) she the-students
`The problem is the students.’
(7) faTma ma-hiyya:-sh il-mas’u:la
Fatima NEG-be.3SF-NEG the-responsible
`Fatima is not the one responsible.’

25. Arabic changes
huwwa > hu(wwa) i-3MS u-phi (gender/number) i-pres equative Specifier to Head: Spec TP > T (but could be Spec PredP > Pred)

26. Korn 2011 on E. Iranian (cf also Benveniste 1959)

27. Wakhi pronominal clitics < be
(1) tu=t kui 2S=PRO who `Who are you.’ (2) chis xabar tei wat news is `What’s the matter?’ (both from Morgenstierne 1938, taken from Korn 2011: 55)

28. Polish (Indo-European, Slavic, from Rutkowski 2006, Bondaruk 2013)
(1) Adam (to) był lingwistą Adam PRT was linguist ‘Adam was a linguist.’ Both are optional in the present: (2) Jan to jest mój najlepszy przyjaciel Jan PRT is my best friend To can only link identical categories: not DP and PP.

29. Argument vs adjunct
(3) Adam był lingwistą, mieszkając w NH Adam was linguist living in New Haven ‘Adam was a linguist when he lived in New Haven.’ (4) *Adam to był lingwista, mieszkając w NH Adam TO was linguist living in New Haven (Rutkowski 2006) (But still lots of debate, e.g. regarding low to in Bondaruk 237)

30. Similar `lag’ in Russian
Optional Demonstrative: (1) Pyotr, eto nash doctor Pyotr this our doctor `Pyotr, he is our doctor.’ (2) *Pyotr, on bolen/nash doctor Pyotr he sick/our doctor `Peter, (he is) sick.’ (3) Pyotr (on) byl bolen P he was sick (data from Tatyana Slobodchikoff)

31. Demonstrative and adverbial source of copulas
(1) a. Mi da i tatá Saramaccan I am your father
‘I am your father.’ (McWhorter 1997: 87)
b. Hεn dà dí Gaamá
he is the chief
‘He's the chief.’ (McWhorter 1997: 98)
(2) Dí wómi dε a wósu
the woman is at house
`The woman is at home.’ (McWhorter 1997: 88)

32. Identification/classification vs location
Saramaccan
equative – locative
identificational da dɛ
class membership da/dɛ
(McWhorter 2005: 117-8; 171)
NigerianPidgin
be/na de
(Mazzoli 2013: 91)

33. Galo (Tibeto-Burman, Tali)
In Galo, əə functions as topic marker as well as unmarked copula and derives from a (proximal) demonstrative, according to Post:
(1) bɨɨ̀ ŋó-kə ̀ azèn əə
3S 1S-GEN friend ART →
3S 1S-GEN friend COP
‘He is my friend.’ (Post 2007 : 429)

34. Swahili (Bantu; Lingua Franca)
McWhorter (1992): very fast change to Modern Swahili with ni for all copula uses. This ni derives from a presentative: (1) vita ni taabu war that trouble, `war is trouble.’ There is currently also a pronominal strategy: (2) Hamisi yu mpishi H 3S cook `Hamisi is a cook.’

35. Early Modern Swahili C17-18
Older Swahili had (mainly locative) li: (3) Tu-li-po 1P-be-here `We are here.’ (Knappert 1969, from McWhorter 1992: 20) but was reanalyzed around 1900 as past tense affix and was replaced by ni and pronouns (and kept zero). Now ni is renewed with locative -ko. (McWhorter’s cause for rapid change: L2)

36. Zoque (Mixe–Zoque)
Demonstrative and copula co-occur in: (1) Te’ tuwi kanaŋbüde te’ tuwi 0-kanaŋ=pü=te DET dog 3B-old=REL=PRED ‘The dog is old’ (Faarlund 2012: 141-2) (2) te xka’e che’bü te’ DET girl small she `The girl, she is small.’

37. Passamaquoddy (Ng 2004)
Demonstratives show three deictic categories, number, animacy, and obviation, but the ambiguous use is the distal inanimate, mostly inflected for number: (1) Yektok nit taktal-ok Anim.Rem.P Inan.dist.S doctor-P `Those are the doctors.’ (Ng 29) Now, the well-known example:

38. Old Chinese > Modern
(1) Shi shi lie gui
this COP violent ghost
‘This is a violent ghost.’
(Peyraube & Wiebusch 1994: 398)
(2) Zhe shi lie gui
this COP violent ghost
(3) Ta bu shi lie gui
3S NEG COP violent ghost
`He’s not a violent ghost.’
(Hui-Ling Yang p.c. for 2 and 3)

39. Shi is also past
(4) wo qu.nian shi xuesheng 1S last.year COP student `Last year, I was a student.’ (Hui-Ling Yang p.c.) (Future needs a modal, e.g. hui) Now also: (5) wo bushi bu xihuan tamen 1S neg.be neg like 3P `Me, it is not that I don’t like them.’

40. Equation and location D > V shi shi semantic [proximate] [identity]
formal [i-3S]
P > V
zai zai
semantic [place] [location]

41. Croft Cycle (Samoan, Polynesian)
Negative particle lə and existential verb iai `be’ are now used as negative prefix in (2): (1) E leai se mea TAM NEG .exist ART thing `There is nothing.’ (2) E leai gaoi Sina TAM NEG move Sina `Sina didn’t move.’ (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 481)

42. Indonesian (Austronesian)
Adalah and ialah are optional copulas, used formally. Ialah is only used with 3rd person. (1) Itu (adalah/ialah) Elly `it be Elly.’ Their origin: ada + lah = `presence/exist’ + emphatic ia + lah = 3rd ps + emphatic Lah + subject is used: (2) ini-lah rumah-na this-EMP home-3 `This is his home.’ (Tendeloo 1901: 259)

43. Ada
Ada is used for existence and locatives (3) Ia ada di rumah 3S be.loc at home `He is at home.’ (4) Ada tamu be.exi visitor `There is a visitor.’ (Kwee 135) and many other uses....

44. Indonesian ctd
Sneddon (1996: 238) says that adalah/ialah are not verbs because they precede the negative but this is rare. Other verbs are typically used with negatives, e.g. merupakan `be’.
The ti-ada negative is competing (Croft 1991)
The demonstrative itu may be renewing the copula (Verhaar p.c. to Nicholas) but no itu itu... (Peter Suwarno p.c.)

45. Indonesian copulas
- ia + lah > be [i-3] EMP [i-3] - ada (+ lah) > be - negative `be’ tiada > negative - itu > ? - merupakan

46. Croft’s Existential Cycle
Type A Type B
Regular NEG NEG + NEG EXIST
Type C
NEG = NEG EXIST

47. Neg+ copula > Neg
Kannada (1) raSmi na:Le haLe:bi:Dige ho:g-utt-a:Le Rashmi tomorrow Haledib.DAT go-NPST-3SG.F `Rashmi goes to Haledib tomorrow.’ (2) anil ka:le:jige ho:gu-vud-illa Anil college.DAT go-NPST.GER-NEG 'Anil won't/doesn't go to college.‘ (Miestamo 2005: 78, based on Sridhar 1990: 112, 220, adapted from vd Auwera & Vossen) Cf. Tamil (Asher 1985, Croft 1991: 17) (3) aanatan uurle ille Anand town.LOC be.neg

48. Ch’orti’ Maya (1) ma-tuk’a e wy-a’r NEG-what ART eat-NOM
`There isn’t any food.’
(for positive, there is a verb ayan).
(2) Ma-ja’x ch’ok
NEG-3 young
`It isn’t new/young.’
(Dugan 2013: 140; 142)

49. Chol Mayan (Coon 2006)
`añ `exist, be’; no copula (even in past) ma `añ SL negative; mač IL negative (1) mač k-om mahlel tyi k-otyoty NEG 1E-want go P 1E-house ‘I don’t want to go to my house.’ (2) ma`añ mi k-mahlel tyi eskwela NEG IMPF 1E-go PREP school ‘I’m not going to school.’

50. (1) wo mei you shu Chinese
I not exist book
`I don't have a book.’
(2) Yao Shun ji mo ... Old Chinese
Yao Shun since died
`Since Yao and Shun died, ...' (from Lin 2002: 5)
Early Mandarin
(3) yu de wang ren mei kunan, ...
wish PRT died person not-be suffering
`If you wish that the deceased one has no suffering, ...'
(Dunhuang Bianwen, from Lin 2002: 5-6)
(4)dayi ye mei you chuan,jiu zou le chulai
coat even not PF wear, then walk PF out
`He didn't even put on his coat and walked out.' (from Lin 2002: 8)

51. Mei < `not be’

52. The various cycles in terms of features
The cycle of agreement
noun > emphatic > pronoun > agreement > 0
[sem] [i-phi] [i-phi]/[u-phi] [u-phi]
The cycles of negation
Adjunct/Argument Specifier Head (of NegP) affix
semantic > [i-NEG]> [u-NEG] > --
Modal Cycle
Verb > AUX
[volition, expectation, future] [future]
Copula Cycle
Demonstrative > copula
[loc, id, i-phi] [loc,id] or [u-phi]

53. Where do features come from?
Chomsky (1965: 142): “semantic features ... too, are presumably drawn from a universal ‘alphabet’ but little is known about this today and nothing has been said about it here.”
EvG: If a language has nouns with semantic phi-features, the learner will be able to hypothesize uninterpretable features on another F (and will be able to bundle them there).

54. Explanations of the (Copula) Cycle
Recent shift towards third factors and parametric features: Minimize structure and movement.
This can be seen in terms of Feature Economy:
All change is in the lexicon: sem>i-F>u-F
Or since Moro (1997): XP – YP is problematic; Chomsky (2013; 2015) Principles of Projection. Chomsky has 2 ways out of the XP YP labeling paradox: movement and feature sharing

55. My take on this: XP > X.
?? PredP DP Pred’ > Pred DP that Pred DP that the chief the chief

56. Conclusions
Unidirectional change provides a window on the language faculty. Cycles are relevant to gain insight into features and structural economy.
Which are the features that need renewal
Why is Spec > head so prevalent?
Labeling?.

57. Selected References
Alsaeedi, Mekhlid The Rise of New Copulas in Arabic. ASU MA.
Benveniste, Emile The linguistic functions of to be and to have. In Problems in General Linguistics.
Bondaruk, Anna Copular Clauses in English and Polish. Lublin.
Chomsky, Noam 2013 Problems of Projection. Lingua.
Chomsky, Noam 2014 Problems of Projection: Extensions.
Croft, William The Evolution of negation. Journal of Linguistics 27: 1-27.
Curme, George Parts of Speech and Accidence. D.C. Heath.
Eid, M The copula function of pronouns. Lingua 59:
Faarlund, Jan Terje A Grammar of Chiapas Zoque. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

58. Faltz, Aryeh 1973. Surrogate Copulas in Hebrew. ms
Faltz, Aryeh Surrogate Copulas in Hebrew. ms. Gelderen, Elly van The Linguistic Cycle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hodge, Carleton The Linguistic Cycle. Linguistic Sciences 13: 1-7. Katz, Aya Cyclical Grammaticalization and the Cognitive Link between Pronoun and Copula. Rice Dissertation.Gelderen, Elly van The Linguistic Cycle. Oxford University Press. Korn, Agnes Pronouns as Verbs. In Korn et al. Wiesbaden; Reichert. Li, Charles, and Sandra Thompson A mechanism for the development of copula morphemes. In Charles Li (ed.), Mechanisms of syntactic change, Austin: University of Texas Press.

59. Mazzoli, Maria 2013. Copulas in Nigerian Pidgin. Padova dissertation.
McWhorter, John Defining Creole. OUP.
McWhorter, John From Focus Marker to Copula in Swahili. Berkeley Linguistics Society: ion. Berlin: Mouton.
Miestamo, Matti Standard Negat
Mosel, Ulrike & Even Hovdhaugen Samoan Reference Grammar. Oslo.
Petré, Peter Constructions and environments. OUP.
Post, Mark A Grammar of Galo. La Trobe Dissertation.
Pustet, Regina Copulas: Universals in the Categorization of the Lexicon. Oxford: OUP.
Stassen, Leon Intransitive Predication. OUP.
Yang, Hui-Ling 2012.