Nonverbal Predication in Amazonian Languages

This paper represents a first effort to characterize the different kinds of nonverbal predicate constructions in the Cariban family, to identify the functions served by copulas, and then to reconstruct the various attested copular forms to a limited number of source forms in Proto-Cariban. Given limitations of space, it is not possible to illustrate all of the cognate nonverbal predicate constructions attested in all of the languages, so the comparative look at the constructions is more programm