[Lingtyp] copula as focus marker

[G. Khan]

Dear Christian,
Copulas acting as focus markers without a relative particle are common in Semitic, see:

Goldenberg, Gideon. 1973. 'Imperfectly-Transformed Cleft Sentences'. In Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies, 1:127-33. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23515560.
Khan, Geoffrey. 2018. 'Remarks on the Syntax and Historical Development of the Copula In North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects'. Aramaic Studies 16: 234-69.
Khan, Geoffrey. 2019. 'Copulas, Cleft Sentences and Focus Markers in Biblical Hebrew'. In Ancient Texts and Modern Readers: Studies in Ancient Hebrew Linguistics and Bible Translation, edited by Gideon R. Kotzé, Christian S. Locatell, and John A. Messarra, 14-62. Leiden-Boston: Brill.

I am attaching them here.

Best wishes
Geoffrey

Geoffrey Khan
Regius Professor of Hebrew
University of Cambridge
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK

From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> On Behalf Of Christian Lehmann
Sent: 12 March 2023 20:27
To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: [Lingtyp] copula as focus marker


Dear colleagues,

the literature available to me adduces a Caribbean Spanish example of what I am looking for:
Juan compró fue un libro.
John bought was a book
'A book is what John bought.'

The copula here separates the topical portion of the clause from the comment portion, including importantly the focus (to which this portion reduces in the example). Different sources of such a construction are conceivable, for instance a pseudo-cleft:
Lo que Juan compró fue un libro.
it that John bought was a book
'What John bought was a book.'

What concerns me at the moment, however, is the bare copula in the function of a focus marker. I am sure I have seen or heard sentences like the following in Portuguese:

O João comprou foi um livro.

or with neutralization of tense and, thus, reduction to the default form of the copula:

O João comprou é um livro.

However, I cannot seem to find evidence for this, neither primary data nor linguistic treatments of it. Could you please help me out? Both references to the linguistic literature and examples, preferably from Portuguese, but also from any other language (I do have data from Mandarin!) would be welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Christian
--

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland
Tel.:
+49/361/2113417
E-Post:
christianw_lehmann at arcor.de<mailto:christianw_lehmann at arcor.de>
Web:
https://www.christianlehmann.eu<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.christianlehmann.eu%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgk101%40universityofcambridgecloud.onmicrosoft.com%7C6c5ed16846234b00c49308db23382fcb%7C49a50445bdfa4b79ade3547b4f3986e9%7C1%7C0%7C638142496452989485%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FsR77%2FcV930q6QeShsQ%2FHKFxti1ZTIpL25N%2F5SNtGAg%3D&reserved=0>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230313/cd1e0773/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Goldenberg 1973 Imperfectively Transformed Cleft Sentences.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 494254 bytes
Desc: Goldenberg 1973 Imperfectively Transformed Cleft Sentences.pdf
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230313/cd1e0773/attachment-0003.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Khan 2019 Copulas, Cleft Sentences and Focus Markers in Biblical Hebrew.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 896109 bytes
Desc: Khan 2019 Copulas, Cleft Sentences and Focus Markers in Biblical Hebrew.pdf
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230313/cd1e0773/attachment-0004.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Khan 2018 Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 255277 bytes
Desc: Khan 2018 Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects.pdf
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230313/cd1e0773/attachment-0005.pdf>