When does ‘become’ BECOME ‘be’?

Abstract

An analysis of Zulu data proves that the inchoative meaning of copulatives is basically marked by the copulative verb stem -ba or an inflection thereof. The underlying copulative verb stems *-li (in the positive) and -si (in the negative) denote a non-inchoative meaning. While the copulative verb stem *-li does not occur in present-day Zulu, its negative counterpart -si occurs frequently in the negative forms of the identificative copulative with a so-called ‘absolute pronoun’ as complement (and less frequently with a noun as complement). The binary opposition between the copulative verb stems -ba/-bi and *-li/-si is abrogated whenever the copulative occurs in one of the non-tense-distinguishing moods, when the potential aspectual morpheme -nga- is included in the copulative or when the future tense morphemes -zo- or -yo- are included in the copulative. In these instances the use of the copulative verb stem -ba (or an inflection thereof) is compulsory. However, this copulative form denotes an inchoative or a non-inchoative meaning.