Typology of Copula Constructions in Gorani Texts and the Ergative System's Reflection in Them

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

2 Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

3 Professor of Minority Languages in the Middle East, Institute of Empirical Linguistics, Faculty of Linguistics, Cultures and Arts, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.

Abstract

In this study, the copula constructions in Gorani texts are investigated, as well as how the ergative system is reflected in them. The Divan of Mawlavi (also known as Kurdish Mawlavi) is one of the most authoritative Gorani manuscripts used in this study. To extract and describe the copula constructions, Dixon's (2010) approach is applied. The copula constructions in Gorani texts are classified into four types: nominal, attributive, existential locative, and existential possessive. In addition to the existential construction, the lexical verb "to have" has been employed to express possession. The agreement pattern of Copula verbs in nominal, attributive, and locative constructions follows the pattern of "S" in past ergative verbs, but in existential possessive constructions it follows the pattern of "A" in past ergative verbs. Despite the fact that lexical verbs have a split and tense-based ergative system, the ergative system in possessive construction is uniformly the same in the present and past tense. Although the existential construction is employed to show possession in both the Gorani texts and modern Persian, in modern Persian the accusative is reflected by the suffix "ra" whereas in Gorani texts the ergative is reflected by pronominal clitics.

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References

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