Inverse copula

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Contents 1 The unified theory of copular sentences 2 Inverse copula and language acquisition 3 Inverse copula and other constructions 4 References

[edit] The unified theory of copular sentences

Copular sentences are sentences containing the copula. A copular sentence may contain a noun phrase, the copula and another phrase. A subfield of research which has been particularly studied is the case of the copula cooccurring with two noun phrases. Along with copular sentences. i.e. sentences containing the copula (to be, in English) where the canonical order of predication is displayed - that is, the subject precedes the predicate - as in a picture of the wall is the cause of the riot there can also be "inverse copular sentences" where this order is mirrored as in the cause of the riot is a picture of the wall (cf. Moro 1997, Everaert et al 2006 and references cited there). Although these two sentences are superficially very similar it can be shown that they embody very different properties. So, for example it is possible to form a sentence like which riot do you think that a picture of the wall is the cause of but not which wall do you think that the cause of the riot was a picture of. The distinction between canonical and inverse copular sentences - and the unified theory of copular sentences associated to it - has been proved to be valid across-languages and has led to some refinement of the theory of clause structure. In particular it challenges one of the major dogmas of the theory of clause or sentence structure, i.e. that the two basic constituents of a sentence - the Noun Phrase and the Verb Phrase - are associated with the logical/grammatical functions of subject and predicate (cf. phrase structure rules and sentence). In fact, copular sentences show that this axiom is not adquate on empirical grounds since the Noun Phrase that cooccurs with the Verb Phrase in a copular sentence can be the predicate and the subject be contained in the Verb Phrase such as in the cause of the riot is a picture of the wall.

[edit] Inverse copula and language acquisition

Interestingly, it has been suggested that inverse copular sentences appear to play a sharp role in setting the pro-drop parameter. In a Romance language like Italian, for example, in sentences of the type Noun Phrase Verb Noun Phrase, the verb generally agrees with the Noun Phrase on the left with one exception: inverse copular setences. One can construe minimal pairs like the cause of the riot is/*are these pictures of the wall vs. la causa della rivolta sono/*è queste foto del muro. These two sentences are one the gloss of the other with only one difference: the copula is plural in Italian and singular in English. If one does not want to give up the idea that agreement is on the left as in all other sentences, then the only option is to assume that a null pronoun, technically called "pro", occurs between the copula and the Noun Phrase on the left. This could provide a positive piece of evidence to the children learning Italian that a null pronoun exist. That a null pronoun can occur as a predicate and not only as a subject must be in fact independently assumed to assign a proper structure to sentences like sono io (is me: "it's me") which can by no means be considered a transformation of *io sono, which has no meaning. This casts a sharp difference with respect to other sentences where the subject appears on the right, such as telefono io (telephone I: "I telephone"), which have been traditionally analyzed as a transformation from io telefono involving a null subject pro on the right.

[edit] Inverse copula and other constructions

The analysis involving the raising of a predicate phrase as in inverse copular sentences has been extended - mutatis mutandis - to other domain of syntax, such as for example, noun phrases. Cases like, this idiot of John have been analyzed as a transformation from an underlying structure where John is the subject and this idiot is the predicate. Crucially, this analysis suggests that there can be other "copula" outside the verbal domain (realized by of, in the cited example) which can play the role of a hub for the predicate to be displaced (see Kayne 1994, Zamparelli 1995, Bennis et al. 1998). The idea of a propredicate has also been extended to other types of constructions, such as for example sentences of the type it seems that John left or sentences of the type what I think it is a mystery is numbers (see Moro 1997, Den Dikken 2006 and references cited there). So, for example, it seems that John left would be analyzed on a par with sentences of the type it's that John left, i.e. involving the occurrence of a pronoun it playing the role of a predicate rather than the subject as traditionally assumed.

[edit] References

• Becker, M. (2000) The development of the copula in child English: the lightness of “be”, Ph. D. Thesis, UCLA.
• Bennis, H. - den Dikken, M. – Corver, N. (1998) “Predication in Nominal Phrases” in The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 1, 85-117.
• Den Dikken, M. (1997) "Predicate Inversion in DP", in Possessors, predicates and movement in the determiner phrase, Alexiadou-Wilder (eds)., Benjamins, Amsterdam, p. 177-214.
• Den Dikken, M. (2006) Relators and linkers. The syntax of predication, predicate inversion and copulas, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Everaert, M. - van Riemsdijk, H - Goedemans, R. (eds) 2006 The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Volumes I-V, Blackwell, London: see "copular sentences" and "existential sentences and expletive there" in Volume II.
• Guéron, J. (1992) Types syntaxiques et types sémantiques: la phrase copulative comme "palimpseste", Revue québecoise de linguistique, 22, 1, 1992.
• Heycock, C. – Kroch, A. (1998) Inversion and Equation in Copular Sentences. In A. Alexiadou et al. (eds) ZAS Papers in Linguistics 10. 71 - 87. Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin.
• Kayne, R. (1994) The Antisymmetry of Syntax, Linguistic Inquiry Monograph Series 25, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Moro, A. 1997 The raising of predicates. Predicative noun phrases and the theory of clause structure, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
• Pereltsvaig, A. (2001)a Copular sentences and the architecture of grammar, Ph.D. Thesis, McGill University, Canada.
• Shlonsky, U. (1997) Clause structure and word order in Hebrew and Arabic: an essay in comparative semitic syntax, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Zamparelli, (1995) Layers in The Determiner Phrase, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Rochester.