Photo credit: Nicholas Welch
Post courtesy of Bronwyn Bjorkman
A couple of weeks ago a bunch of us met for an informal mini-workshop: *Practical BE-Keeping*. The idea was to bring together members of the department who were all working on topics relating to copulas, the verb BE, and verbal inflection, and see what came out of the discussion!
Rather than having a series of talks, we organized the discussion
around a set of questions and themes. On the day of the workshop we
started by organizing these questions (we had quite a list!) around a
few basic themes, and establishing a common vocabulary
(what did we mean by "copula" anyway?).
Photo credit: Bronwyn Bjorkman
Then we divided into a few groups to discuss topics of particular
interest: the relationship between copular structures and case; how to
distinguish silence from absence; and the typology of factors that
determine copula choice (aktionsart, tense, complement
type) and its theoretical implications. Finally, we came back together
and tried to pool our separate insights.
Overall, the day was a great success! It was a wonderful
opportunity to sit down together and discuss a particular topic, beyond
what we can do informally in the hall or the lounge! We have great hopes
of organizing a follow-up event sometime in the summer,
when people's schedules are more open, and would highly recommend
similar events on other topics!
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