Topicality of the ‘Copula. form Shi in Santa Mongolian

Abstract

Santa (Dunxian) Mongolian cotnains a form called shi emanating from the copula ‘是 (shiP4P)’ of Chinese. In previous research, this form is known as a borrowed form that can occur with the indigenous copula wo., However, shi has been variously described as a ‘copula’ (刘 1981; Kim 2003; Napoli 2004), ‘copula verb’ (Field 1997), and a ‘postposition to show presentation’ (布和等编1986). As yet, there has not been a unified description of the actual function of shi. In this presentation, I pay attention to topicality after having analyzed the environment and the meaning of shi. First, regarding the environment, I pay attention to the elements preceding shi. From the analysis of the type of noun phrases that appear before shi and noun phrases that do not appear, I show that more definite noun phrases such as personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns do appear, while less definite noun phrases such as interrogatives do not appear. Secondly, regarding the meaning function, I pay attention to examples frequently using shi. From the analysis of these examples, I show that shi has functions such as presenting a condition. Finally, regarding topicality, I contrast the topicality of Santa Mongolian shi with that of the Chinese 是, the original language of borrowing, and the Japanese wa, which is known as a topic marker. With this in mind, I conclude that the shi from Santa Mongolian should be analyzed as a topic marker and not as a copula.