The Pronominal Copula Cycle
Elly van Gelderen · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2011
A third person subject pronoun or demonstrative is frequently reanalyzed as an auxiliary or copula verb, initially with its person and number features in tact. This is very different from the subject cycle, where first and second person are consistently the first to change. The chapter argues the reason is due to the deictic features of the demonstrative which translate into locational features on the copula. Copula cycles occur in many typologically and genetically different languages: Turkish, Uto-Aztecan, Chinese, Hebrew, Palestinian Arabic, Maltese, Kenya Luo, Lango, Logbara, Nuer, Wappo, West Greenlandic, and Creoles. The chapter further argues that the cyclical changes follow from the Head Preference Principle and Feature Economy.