| This study focuses on the concepts BE and HAVE in Russian, Czech, Polish, and Bulgarian with frequent mention of English, German, and Hindi-Urdu. Often these concepts are manifested as verbs, but the discussion also includes the full range of constructions from zero copulas to non-verbal HAVE expressions. BE and HAVE are analyzed in terms of a blended prototype model, combining two inseparable ideas: EXISTENCE and COPULA for BE, POSSESSION and RELATIONSHIP for HAVE. BE and HAVE are related to each other in their functions and meanings, and are the organizing principles in a conceptual nexus of semantically related verbs and constructions, including GIVE, HAVE, TAKE, GET, BECOME, BE, DO, MAKE, and verbs of position and motion. All of these concepts are central to any language and their expression is found in words basic to the vocabulary of those languages. The renewal and replacement of BE and HAVE are provided by lexical items in this conceptual nexus through the processes of polysemization and suppletion. Connections between neighboring semantic concepts are language-dependent and are influenced by the wider structure of the individual language and by the nature of BE and HAVE in that language. The semantics of BE and HAVE explain their widespread grammaticalization across languages. As grammatical constructions develop, they maintain connections with their semantic origins and continue to thrive off of the semantics of BE and HAVE. The development of the concepts BE and HAVE is complex and the situation in modern languages is one composed of widely varied constructions and uses which cannot be taken for granted.;Methods and ideas from cognitive linguistics, grammaticalization, historical linguistics, and language contact studies are used in the theoretical framework of this study. Topics covered include polysemy (multiple meanings), suppletion (multiple roots), main verb functions, auxiliary functions, modality, causatives, evidentials, function words, grammatical categories, borrowing, contact phenomena, syntactic calques, the behavior of closely related semantic concepts ( GET, GIVE, etc.), and a rich variety of idiomatic constructions. All of these factors must be taken into consideration in order to begin to understand the functions of BE and HAVE in language. |
