Grammaticalization of the copula #ni in Tibeto-Burman languages

Vander Auwera & Vossen (2017) identify an intriguing shift from a copula to a negative marker in the Tibeto-Burman Kiranti group, and discuss it as a possible example of Jespersen's Cycle. This paper traces a fuller history of the copula #ni, and presents an account of its association with negation, which is attested in several other Tibeto-Burman languages besides Kiranti. In most Tibeto-Burman languages the equational copula is "optional", occurring in affirmative sentences only with a contrastive or emphatic sense. For this reason copulas often develop into sentence-final stance markers. Since negation is morphologically marked on verbs, a negated equational sentence requires an overt copula which can be negated. This paper presents data showing how this association of the presence of a copula with negation has resulted in the negative sense becoming associated with and, in a few cases, becoming the direct meaning of the erstwhile copula.