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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 47:3 (2023) ► pp.505–525

Copula to negator

Grammaticalization of the copula #ni in Tibeto-Burman languages

ORCID logo | University of Oregon

Van der Auwera & Vossen (2017) identify an intriguing shift from a copula to a negative marker in the Tibeto-Burman Kiranti group, and discuss it as a possible example of Jespersen’s Cycle. This paper traces a fuller history of the copula #ni, and presents an account of its association with negation, which is attested in several other Tibeto-Burman languages besides Kiranti. In most Tibeto-Burman languages the equational copula is “optional”, occurring in affirmative sentences only with a contrastive or emphatic sense. For this reason copulas often develop into sentence-final stance markers. Since negation is morphologically marked on verbs, a negated equational sentence requires an overt copula which can be negated. This paper presents data showing how this association of the presence of a copula with negation has resulted in the negative sense becoming associated with and, in a few cases, becoming the direct meaning of the erstwhile copula.

Keywords: negation, copula, grammaticalization, Tibeto-Burman, Sino-Tibetan, Trans-Himalayan
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and background
    • 1.1The copula #ni
    • 1.2Equational copulas and verbless sentences in Tibeto-Burman languages
  • 2.Intermediate grammaticalization stages
    • 2.1Copula #ni as tense/aspect marking
    • 2.2Grammaticalization of stance values: From copula to sentence-final particle
  • 3.Grammaticalization of negation
    • 3.1Relict negative copulas
    • 3.2 #ni and negation in Kiranti
    • 3.3 #ni and negation in South Central
  • 4.The copula and negation
  • Data sources for tables
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21065.del
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