The Nature and the Emergence of Copula in English

Oktavianti, Ikmi Nur The Nature and the Emergence of Copula in English. In: The Ninth Conference on English Studies, 29-30 November 2012, Jakarta, Indonesia.

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Abstract

All languages are in perpetual state of changes, including English. One sort of language change is the emergence and the loss of components of grammar. An example of components of grammar in English is related to predicative construction. It is copula—commonly known as “to be” (is, am, are, was, were, been)—which is involved in forming predicative construction, but not the predicate itself. Basically, the emergence of a component is caused by the loss or the shift of other components, and this also happens to the emergence of copula.
There are numerous previous studies on copula in English. However, those studies mostly focused on their syntactic aspects; for instance the analysis on the structure of copular clauses (identificational, predicational, specificational, and equational), and the analysis on it-cleft/pseudocleft construction as the non-canonical constructions with copula. Besides, most of them are carried out by applying synchronic approach. Though it is prominent as the evidence of language change, the in-depth study on the factors triggering the emergence of copula by observing Old English and Middle English is rarely conducted.
Based on the explanation above, therefore, this paper attempts to figure out the nature of copula in English and propose the factors that trigger the emergence of this linguistic component in English by applying the analysis of diachronic approach.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English
Divisi / Prodi:	Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan) > S1-English Education (S1-Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris)
Depositing User:	Dr. Ikmi Nur Oktavianti
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2015 07:01
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2015 07:01
URI:	http://eprints.uad.ac.id/id/eprint/2510

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