How to obtain a copula from a process verb

The process whereby posture verbs can lose part of their semantic content and become

‘light’ verbs or auxiliaries is an instance of grammaticalization, which may involve several stages in which the posture verb may take on different complements and functions (see Kuteva 1999).⁵⁰ As an example, consider the process undergone by the Latin process posture verb stare ‘stand’ (92), which Hengeveld (1992) uses to exemplify the different stages leading to its copularization. The path of change involves a first stage where the lexical verb is used with locative phrases showing the verb’s new function as a ‘localizing copula’. The next stages expand the verb’s combinatorial possibilities to

50 Van Gelderen defines grammaticalization as “a process whereby lexical items lose phonological weight and semantic specificity and gain grammatical functions” (2009:232). Van Gelderen’s definition of grammaticalization specifically addresses the phenomena under consideration and the steps whereby a new lexical form comes into being, however the term “grammaticalization” may be also used to refer to the linguistic research framework dealing with language change whose objective is to answer “questions as how lexical items and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions or how grammatical items develop new grammatical functions” (Hopper & Traugott [1993] 2003:1). In addition, grammaticalization also studies correlations that arise throughout time and across languages.

For an overview of the different approaches to grammaticalization and the evolution of the approaches see Heine, Claudi, & Hünnemeyer (1991). See also Roberts & Roussou (2003) for an account of grammaticalization within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995), for whom grammaticalization should be understood as the generation of new functional items stemming from the reanalysis of lexical items into functional ones, or the reanalysis of existing functional items into new ones. For these authors, grammaticalization is conceived of as a modification of a language’s parametric settings.

Underlying Entry

Main Verb Auxiliary

verb Light verb

adjectives and nouns. In a later stage, the posture verb acting as a copula could also be used to express possession.⁵¹

(92) V ➝ (xi)Loc > A > N > (xi)Poss

(Hengeveld 1992:246, (26))

Similar stages are involved in the copularization of English remain, for which Van Gelderen (2015) provides the relevant moments of the reanalysis from its original meaning of ‘stay with’ (93) to its reanalysis as a copula, where it can appear with a complement such as a prepositional phrase (94).⁵² The process of grammaticalization usually begins with the loss of part of the verb’s specificity. In the case at hand, remain lost location and duration meaning indicatives, as illustrated in (95). This neutralization of its meaning would later pave the way for its subsequent reanalysis as a copula.

51 See Batllori & Roca (2011) for a detailed evolution of stare into a copula in Latin, Catalan, and Spanish.

52 Van Gelderen’s (2009) grammaticalization process is driven by economy principles whose main goal is to make the acquisition of grammar less costly. In particular, the Linguistic Cycle is guided by two economy principles, the Head Preference Principle (HPP) (1) and Late Merge Principle (LMP) (2), which serve to reanalyze lexical items instantiating structural elements and change their positions.

(i) Head Preference Principle (HPP) Be a head, rather than a phrase.

(ii) Late Merge Principle (LMP) Merge as late as possible.

(Van Gelderen 2009:234, (8)) Van Gelderen later develops a feature-based grammaticalization cycle instead, simplifying both the HPP and LMP by means of a more general principle, the Principle of Feature Economy (3), which collapses together the two previous economy principles as shown in (iii).

(iii) Principle of Feature Economy

Minimize the semantic/interpretable features in the derivation

Adjunct Specifier Head > affix

Semantic > [iF] > [uF] > --

(Lohndal 2009:216, (35)) A subsequent stage in the grammaticalization process is possible after the conversion of the lexical verb into a copula. Copulas may develop into auxiliaries, losing their remaining features and their ability to assign theta-roles (Van Gelderen 2018:137). As a consequence, the auxiliary is merged as part of the tense, aspect, and/or mood heads. The final stage in the copula cycle would be the emergence of an affix (see Lohndal 2009 for more details). Note that the auxiliarization process argued for by Van Gelderen runs counter to Butt and Lahiri’s (2013) proposal, which assumes that the auxiliary verb form derives from the main lexical verb. See Kuteva (1999), Bowern (2008), and Camilleri & Sadler (2017), among others, for further discussion on the direction of grammaticalization for these elements.

(93) To the part of this endenture remaynand to the forsaid Alexander

‘to the part of this agreement remaining to Alexander, mentioned before’

(OED, 1388, Robertson Illustr. Topogr. & Antiq. Aberdeen & Banff III. 295) (Van Gelderen 2015:294, (14a)) (94) Those lordes of her honorable kinne, which as yet remained vnder arrest

should vpon the matter examined, do wel ynough

‘those lords of her honorable family, who as yet remain under arrest, should do well enough upon the matter being examined’

(Richard III)

(Van Gelderen 2015:295, (15b))

(95) V (intransitive) > Pred (copula) remain remain

[location] [i-durative]

[duration] [u-th]

[u-th]

(Van Gelderen 2015:295, (16))

Among the reasons contributing to its reanalysis, Van Gelderen mentions: (i) the presence of an apposition, or secondary predicate, next to it, which could be reanalyzed as its complement (96), (ii) the existence of ambiguity as to whether the element following the verb is to be interpreted as an argument or an adjunct (97), and (iii) whether the adjective accompanying the verb is modifying the verb or the subject (98).⁵³ (96) The Factour with the others did remaine prisoners

‘the perpetrator with the others remained, prisoners’

(Visser 1963: 195, Lichefield translation, 1582)

(Van Gelderen 2015:295, (17))

53 These reasons seem to be a common denominator among verbs undergoing copularization. A similar process is found with the aspectual use of the verb equivalent to sit in several dialects of Arabic. Camilleri

& Sadler (2017) argue for a desemanticisation account for this verb, which initially served to locate a figure in space. The impoverishment of its semantics allowed its use to express temporary location, which caused the loss of the physical posture meaning. This, in turn, brought along a relaxation of the properties of the figure, which need not be animate. Finally, the unbounded semantics of the verb led the way to its use as a progressive aspect marker.

(97) I am yor bedman and so shall remayn be the grace of God all the days of myn liff ‘I am your servant and so shall remain (i) by the grace of God, for all the days of my life’

(Visser 1963: 195, Gairdner’s edition II p. 66)

(Van Gelderen 2015:295, (18)) (98) Since which she was removed to Kimbolton, Where she remains now sick

‘Since when she was removed to Kimbolton, where she now remains, sick’

(Visser 1963: 195, Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 4.1)

(Van Gelderen 2015:296, (19)) The resulting grammaticalized structure is shown in figure 4, where the lexical verb is realized as a copular element in the Predication phrase.

FIGURE 4:GRAMMATICALIZATION OF COPULAS IN VAN GELDEREN (2015:297)⁵⁴

To summarize, in the case of Germanic posture verbs, the ‘light’ verb use has acquired impoverished semantics, since it does not necessarily imply a physical posture meaning and admits both inanimate and abstract figures. Nevertheless, as shown in the preceding sections, it still applies certain lexical restrictions on the figure. Following Ramchand’s (2014) hypothesis on the dimensions of meaning in lexical items, I would like to argue that posture verbs in the simple position sense with no implication of

54 For a discussion of PredP and small-clauses, see Bowers (1993, 2001), Den Dikken (2006), Hoekstra &

Mulder (1990), Matushansky (2019), among others.

physical posture are undergoing a process of desemantisation, whereby type-B meaning is fading, while type-A meaning endures. The loss of type-B meaning is the result of the presence of a prepositional phrase acting as rheme of the process head. One could hypothesize that this element, which might have been an adjunct to the posture verb initially, similar to the maintain position sense, is being reinterpreted as a complement of the verb validating the localizing function of the construction. This reanalysis is detrimental to the physical posture meaning, i.e. type-B meaning, which will eventually become weakened. The structure shown in figure 5 schematizes both the localizing function of the simple position sense by means of a rhematic prepositional phrase and the unboundedness of the event denoted by the process head.

FIGURE 5:STATIONARY MOTION WITH POSTURE VERBS