Laying the groundwork for the DELV (Precursor literature, dissertations, joint work of the Working Groups prior to the conceptualization of the DELV)
Publication Date
1998
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to suggest a linguistically based principle to account for the distribution of overt vs. zero copulas in African American English. We will propose an approach based on Feature Interpretability and the Principle of Full Interpretation (Chomsky 1995). We suggest that, in Present Tense contexts, the copula is overt in presentational (as opposed to predicational) sentences to support the presence of a situation argument in INFL.
Journal or Book Title
Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development
Pages
50-57
Volume
1
COinS
Comments
Benedicto, E., Abdulkarim, L., Garrett, D., Johnson, V., & Seymour, H. N. (1998). Overt copulas in African American English speaking children. In A. Greenhill, M. Hughes, H.Littlefield, & H. Walsh (Eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development: Vol. 1 (pp. 50-57). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.