The Origin and Evolution of Copulas in Zhuang-Dai Languages
The copulas in Zhuang-Dai languages emerged probably during the Tang and Song Dy-nasties but not yet fully developed at that time,which is the main reason for the coexistence of native words and borrowed words from Chinese in this system.It can be divided roughly into five types:1)the vernacular words derived from verbs meaning"hit the mark"(打中);2)the native words derived from the verbal meaning"become"(成为);3)the Chinese loan word"zhuo"(着);4)the Chinese loan word"zheng"(正);5)the Chinese loan word"shi"(是);and lε3/le1 of unknown origin.The time sequence of their generation(or borrowing)is likely to be 1)→2)→4)→5)/3)as labeled above.Although it is difficult to determine the time when le3/le1 begain to show the function of a copula,the phenomenon that words with the meaning of"hitting the mark"and"correctness"share the same forms with the corresponding copulas is likely the common feature in some languages.Among those Chinese loanwords,the copula function of zheng and zhe comes from the semantic replication of their counter-parts in Zhuang language;Shi was borrowed directly as a copula.Whether native words evolve into copulas is closely related to the depth of influence of Chinese language in the corresponding region.
万方数据
维普
