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Typology Versus Mythology: The Case of the Zero-Copula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Leon Stassen
Leon Stassen
Affiliation:
Department of General Linguistics, Catholic University of Nijmegen, Erasmusplein 1, K. 15–13, 6525 GG Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email U248005@VM.UCI.KUN.NL
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Abstract

It is widely believed that copulas perform a mere grammatical function, as carriers of grammatical categories such as Tense, Mood and Aspect in sentences with non-verbal predicates. Accordingly, zero copulas are predicted to occur only in contexts where these grammatical categories are unmarked. This article argues that this view of copulas, and especially of zero copula encoding, is untenable as a principle of Universal Grammar. More generally, the article demonstrates how typological generalizations can be used as an evaluation measure for putative abstract principles of linguistic theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 17 , Special Issue 2: Special issue on LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY , December 1994 , pp. 105 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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