Grammaticalization and linguistic typology

Portuguese has had a copula for all of its history, i.e. since the period of Archaic Latin starting from 600 BC. Its conjugation comprises the categories of an intransitive verb. It is obligatory in clauses with a nominal predicate ().

.	O	seu	destino	é	Manhurimim.
Port	DEF.M.SG	his	destination	is	Manhurimim.
	His destination is Manhurimim.				(CL)

The default main constituent order in a verbal clause is ‘subject – verb – other dependents’ ().

.	ele	vai	para	Manhurimim
Port	he	goes	to	Manhurimim
	he goes to Manhurimim

The default thematic structure of a copula clause has the comment in the predicate. This also applies to the pseudo-cleft construction. The language has had a regular pseudo-cleft constructions for all of its history. The second line of shows a pseudo-cleft construction which has a suspensive contrastive focus on the goal of the movement.

.	Ele	disse	que	vai	para	Piracicaba,
Port	he	said	SR	goes	to	Piracicaba
Port	He said he would go to Piracicaba,

mas	aonde	ele	vai	é	para	Manhurimim.
but	to:where	he	goes	is	to	Manhurimim
but where he goes is to Manhurimim.						(variant of , CL)

In contemporary spoken Brazilian Portuguese, the relative proform may be omitted and the mere copula suffices to separate the topic from the comment of a clause ().

.	Ele	disse	que	vai	para	Piracicaba,
Port	he	said	SR	goes	to	Piracicaba
Port	He said he would go to Piracicaba,

mas	ele	vai	é	para	Manhurimim.
but	he	goes	is	to	Manhurimim
but he does go to Manhurimim.					(Simões 1992: 169)

In such a construction, the copula follows the topic and precedes the comment, which contains a contrastive focus. To contemporaneous synchronic grammarians, this appears as “ser intrusivo”, approximately ‘intrusive copula’ (Simões 1992, ch. 6.4.2). And in fact, not all occurrences of the copula in the middle of a clause can be expanded to a full-fledged pseudo-cleft construction. It also appears in this function in sentences like , which bear no paradigmatic relation to a pseudo-cleft construction. At the same time, shows that even in this focus-marking function, the copula agrees in tense/aspect with the lexical verb of the clause.

.	O	João	deu	um	iPod	pra	mãe. —
Port	DEF.M.SG	John	gave	INDF.M.SG	iPod	to:DEF.F.SG	mother
Port	John gave his mother an iPod. —

Não,	o	João	deu	foi	um	iPhone	pro	pai.
no	DEF.M.SG	John	gave	was	INDF.M.SG	iPhone	to:DEF.M.SG	father
No, he gave an iPhone to his father.							(Kato 2010: 66)

At this point, the copula has developed into a thematic structure articulator (tsa). It can even cooccur with the copula in a copula clause ().

.	Essa	menina	é	é	inteligente.
Port	D.MED:F	girl	is	TSA	intelligent
	That girl is intelligent.				(Simões 1992: 169)

Thus, this thematic structure articulation originates in a suspensive pseudo-cleft sentence. The Portuguese copula is, nevertheless, not yet completely grammaticalized to a thematic structure articulator. For instance, neutralization of TAM distinctions in favor of the form é is yet pending.¹ Also, the TSA has to follow the verb, so that only postverbal clause components can be highlighted. This is a trait which is persistent from its origin in the copula of a pseudo-cleft construction.

¹ This is possible in Colombian Spanish (Hengeveld 2010: 13).

References

Hengeveld, Kees 2010, The focalizing copula in Colombian Spanish. Unpublished presentation.

Kato, Mary A. 2010, ‘Clivadas sem operador no Português Brasileiro’. Estudos da Lingua(gem) 8: 61-77.

Reinhardt, Karl J. 1973, "The construction of quero é comer". Hispania 56: 306-308.

Simões, Antônio R.M. 1992, Com licença! Brazilian Portuguese for Spanish speakers. Austin: University of Texas Press.