Table Of ContentTitle Pages
University Press Scholarship Online
Oxford Scholarship Online
Copulas: Universals in the Categorization of the Lexicon
Regina Pustet
Print publication date: 2003
Print ISBN-13: 9780199258505
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258505.001.0001
Title Pages
Copulas Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory Copulas
SERIES EDITORS: Ronnie Cann, University of Edinburgh, William Croft, University of
Manchester, Anna Siewierska, University of Lancaster.
This series offers a forum for innovative work in language typology and linguistic
universals. It aims to link theory and empirical research in mutually productive ways and
at the same time to make available a wide range of cross-linguistic data.
Published:
Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices
by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Subordination
by Sonia Cristofaro
The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking
Page 1 of 4
Title Pages
by Michael Cysouw
Indefinite Pronouns
by Martin Haspelmath
Anaphora
by Yan Huang
Copulas
by Regina Pustet
The Noun Phrase
by Jan Rijkhoff
Intransitive Predication
by Leon Stassen
In Preparation:
Double Object Constructions
by Maria Polinsky
To be Published in Association with the Series
The World Atlas of Language Structures
edited by Matthew Dryer, Bernard Comrie, David Gil, and Martin Haspelmath
(p.iv) This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in
order to ensure its continuing availability
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research,
Page 2 of 4
Title Pages
scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal
Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Regina Pustet 2003
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
Reprinted 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the
appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights
Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Page 3 of 4
Title Pages
ISBN 0-19-925850-3
(p.v) Dedication
For
Marianne Pustet
and
in memoriam
Eberhard Pustet (1924–2000)
(p.ix) Preface
The present investigation of copulas evolves around a vast amount of empirical data which
have either been collected during field sessions with native speakers of various—mainly
non-Indo-European—languages, or on the basis of grammatical descriptions. The
empirical database is composed of two independent sections. As a first step, a cross-
linguistic sample has been established that provides an overview of the typological
variation encountered in the grammatical domain of copularization. Due to the
considerable genetic and geographical stratification of this language sample, data from the
descriptive literature, rather than field data compiled by the author, had to be used.
However, the detailed investigation of the potential semantic motivation of copula usage,
which follows the typologically-oriented part of the study, is exclusively based on field
data. The information on the semantic content of individual lexemes required in this
context is so specific that dictionaries and other descriptive materials could not be
utilized as data sources. As is always the case when language data are collected by means
of consultant work with native speakers, some variation in the responses to a given
question may occur. This effect could be observed also in the surveys that were
conducted for the purpose of the present study. Most languages were investigated in
cooperation with more than just one native speaker. By and large, however, responses
were surprisingly consistent from speaker to speaker. This part of the empirical study
Page 1 of 3
Preface
yielded about 1 600 pages of field data.
The general theoretical model of copularization that is derived from the empirical data
compiled in this study is in line with recent functional-typological approaches to the parts-
of-speech issue.
The field data this investigation is based on have been gathered both in discrete places in
Germany and the United States, and on sporadic trips to Austria and Thailand. The
project, as well as the extensive amount of travel connected with it, was generously
supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsge-meinschaft from 1998 through to
2001. The University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oregon at Eugene
have hosted my research during this period. The manuscript was completed during a
stay at the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourne,
Australia, in 2001. I am indebted to Bob Dixon and Sasha Aikhenvald for making the
Australian adventure possible for me.
I would like to express my gratitude to the following persons who mustered up the
patience to provide me with data on their native languages in lengthy, exasperating, and
presumably brain-wrecking field sessions: Hassan Adam, Neda Afrashi, May Au, Michael
Bauer, Carlos Búa, Violet Catches, Olga Chapado, (p.x) Gwen Frishkoff, Sevim Genç,
Eugen Hill, Mehmet Hacιsalihoğlu, Makoto Hayashi, Joshi Ito, Budsakorn Jedkhuntod,
Maria Jernej, Hamid Kante, Nedime Karakaplan, Hitomi Kashiwazaki, Akiko Kishimoto,
Shou-Hue Kuo, Jennifer Kwong, Hsin-Yun Liu, Le-Ning Liu, Amina Manchano, Hiromi
Miyata, Katalin Molnár, Yuna Morita, Kensuke Nakajo, Keiko Ono, Jong-Hee Pak, Kong
Peng, Alon Raab, Bill Raymond, Florine Red Ear Horse, Namika Sagara, Chris Searles,
Norio Shima, Magid Shirzadegan, Aaron Siu, Watcharee Srikham, Chayada Srithong,
Suranchana Srithong, Neva Standing Bear, Isabelle Süthold-Ferchaud, Suraporn
Suriyamonton, Akiko Takeyama, Kadri Tamm, Şebnem Uzunlar, Juliana Wijaya, and Than
Than Win. Without their assistance, discipline, and continued cooperation this book would
not have been written.
My thanks also go to Bernard Comrie, Tom Givón, Michael Noonan, and David Rood for
valuable comments on some of my papers which are thematically related to the present
book, and once again, to Bernard Comrie for commenting on an earlier draft of this work.
Any errors are, of course, my responsibility. I am also indebted to two anonymous
referees for the journal Studies in Language who encouraged me to expand the original
version of this manuscript into a book. A preliminary version of this monograph was used
as an Habilita-tions thesis at the University of Munich, Germany. I would also like to
express my gratitude to my thesis advisor Wolfgang Schulze, as well as to Bernard
Comrie, Daniel Jacob, and Dietmar Zaefferer, for acting as referees in the evaluation of
the Habilitations thesis.
Regina Pustet
Munich, July 2002
Page 2 of 3
(p.xi) List of Abbreviations
1,2,3
first, second, third person
ABS
absolutive
AFX
affix
AG
agent
ALL
allative
AUX
auxiliary
CL
class prefix
CLF
classifier
CNT
continuative
Page 1 of 4
List of Abbreviations
COP
copula
DAT
dative
DCL
declarative
DEF
definite
DIR
directional
EX
existential
FEM
feminine
FOC
focus
FUT
future
GER
gerund
HAB
habitual
IDF
indefinite
IN
inanimate
IND
indicative
INS
instrumental
IPF
imperfective
LOC
locative
LPR
locative predicator
MSC
masculine
NEG
negative
NM
nominalizer
NOM
nominative
NPS
Page 2 of 4
