Where Grammar Comes From: Grammaticalizations of the Copula #ni in Tibeto-Burman Languages

Abstract:

Across the Tibeto-Burman languages we find scattered but substantial evidence for a Proto-Trans-Himalayan copula #ni, for example, in Dimasa (Longmailai 2014):

1) e-bɔ ʤɪ-nɪ ɡɑɾɪ nɪ-dʊ
this we-GEN car EQ-GENERIC
‘This is our car.’

2) e-bɔ ʤɪ-nɪ ɡɑɾɪ nɪ-ja
this we-GEN car EQ-NEG
‘This is not our car.’

This copula has grammaticalized in several different directions in various languages of the family. Reflexes of the copula can be found as sentence-final stance markers or as NP-final topic or focus markers. In several languages, including Atong (Bodo-Garo) and some South Central (Kuki-Chin) this copula has become associated with negation, and in Kiranti has even grammaticalized into a negative marker (van der Auwera and Vossens 2017). All of these shifts can be traced to the fact that in Tibeto-Burman languages the copula is normally not used in affirmative sentences except to indicate contrast, as we see in exx. (1-2), where the presence of the overt copula in (1) forces a contrastive reading of the sentence.