The Historical Development of Copula be in English: An Analysis of Old and Middle English Texts (A Preliminary Study)

Oktavianti, Ikmi Nur The Historical Development of Copula be in English: An Analysis of Old and Middle English Texts (A Preliminary Study). In: Seminar Internasional Studi Bahasa dari Berbagai Perspektif, 5-6 December 2013, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.

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Abstract

Change in language will be an inevitable fact. All living languages are in perpetual state of changes, including English. One sort of language changes is related to the grammar of the language. An example of components of grammar in English is predicative construction. The predicative construction consists of at least one verb; be it lexical verb or functional verb. Hence, verb is a prominent category in an English construction; when there is no lexical verb, there will be functional verb, copula be, occupying the predicate function. It is evident, then, that copula be is prominent in English grammar. Considering its importance, there are oodles number of research on copula be, especially the syntactic and semantic analyses. Rather, there have been merely a small number of them focusing on the diachronic aspect. Basically, studying copula be diachronically could provide examples of language change as the nature of a living language. Furthermore, it will be able to depict the characteristics of English language. Based on the previous explanation, thus, this paper aims at describing the historical development of copula be by analyzing Old and Middle English texts. Even though the texts are limited to particular dialect(s) of English, this study is expected to give clear and comprehensive examples of language change in English and the characteristics of English language over a period of time.

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/2517

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