| dc.description.abstract | Old Irish has two different verbs, the copula and the substantive verb, that correspond to what
would be translated in most Germanic languages as ‘to be’. In some cases, these verbs appear to be
able to overlap in use. These cases do not correspond to the known regular use of the substantive
verb and the copula, and, so far, no answer for them has been put forward. This thesis attempts to
find an origin for the use of the substantive verb for the copula and vice versa, by collecting and
analysing the irregular examples of overlap.
To answer this question, the Old Irish glosses and a select few Old Irish texts, which are dated
to the Old Irish period, were analysed for cases of overlap between the substantive verb and the
copula. The results show a small number of occurrences of overlap between the substantive verb and
the copula. These results are discussed in-depth, taking into account the full context of the relevant
glosses. Possible features responsible for the irregular use of the substantive verb for the copula and
vice versa are the translation of Latin 'esse', a stylistic choice, an archaism, or influence by register. It is
argued that two registers exist in the Old Irish glosses, namely an educated, high register, established
in the centres of learning in Ireland in the 6th century, a colloquial register of the authors of the glosses,
and the tension between the two.
In all instances of the occurrence of overlap, the substantive verb uses the word order
expected for the substantive verb (SUBST + SUBJ + PRED), and the copula uses the expected word
order for the copula (COP + PRED + SUBJ). The common denominator of the compiled examples was
their underlying word order, which was regular for both the examples of the use of the substantive
for the copula and vice versa. It is argued that this distinction was originally used in the educated
register to distinguish the copula and the substantive verb. Under pressure of the colloquial register
of the authors of the glosses, other distinctions between the substantive and the copula were already
used in the Old Irish glosses, resulting in only a small amount of examples of overlap that are still
present in the material studied in this thesis. For this reason, the study concludes that the overlap
between the substantive verb and the copula is due to an earlier reliance on word order rather than
word class. | |
