Verb "bu:n", "to be" in Kurdish

The current study aims to investigate stative lexical aspect of Sourani Kurdish predicates made by adjectives and copula bu:n, ‘to be’, applying binary classification of Smith (1997/1991). The findings reveal that the predicates are not always stative experiencing a kind of aspect-conversion influenced by two factors. The first factor is the copula bu:n, ‘to be’, which is a homonym with two different meanings, bu:n, ‘to be’, and  ‘to become’ The predicates which are the result of adjectives and copula in the meaning of ‘to become’ are always non-stative and stage-level. Besides, the data show that all predicates which are the result of combining adjectives and copula bu:n in the meaning of ‘to be’ are not always stative influenced by the content of the adjectives in the structure. According to adjective classification by Schmitt (1972) and Bach (1978), the predicates made by the adjectives belonging to the classifying group and bu:n, ‘to be’, always make stative individual-stage predicates. However, the ones belonging to the qualifying group produce non-stative stage-level predicates.
 
1. Introduction
“Aspect” is a syntactic category in linguistic studies which is expressed on verbs either by grammatical morphemes or the verb content observing how an action, event, or state, denoted by a verb, extends over time in speaker’s perspective.  Linguists have classified aspect making a distinction between “grammatical aspect” and “lexical aspect”. Grammatical aspect considers aspect through the sentence and performs like a camera lens which focuses on all or part of a situation to highlight the information. Each language applies various mechanisms to show grammatical aspect including affixes, reduplication, copula verbs, and grammatical morphemes. Lexical aspect appears in verb content. They differ in the temporal properties of durativity, culmination and delimination. 
 
2. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of the present study is based on the classification for lexical aspect by Smith (1997) (He calls this aspect as situation type). The first group is “activity” containing special temporal features like dynamism, telicity and duration. Second class is “accomplishment” which is distinguished from others by features like dynamism, duration, telicity, and having process and outcome. This kind of aspect is characterized by having continuous stages moving toward natural final point. Third group are “achievement” predicates which are dynamic, telic and instantaneous predicates changing the state. It is likely that final point of the action is never a part of the action. Next group are “semelfactives” which refer to single-stage, dynamic, atelic, and instantaneous predicates which mostly do not have any consequences. They are the simplest form of actions since they just have one event. They happen in a glance and do not last in time. Final class is “state” which refers to stable situations holding for a moment. They have stative and durative features. The property of duration holds for all statives even those temporary ones referring to short instantaneous situations. This class needs an exterior motivation to change from one state to the other. Besides, initiation and final points are not considered as parts of a state; they are separated situations which make the changing situation points.
 
3. Methodology
The current study is a kind of descriptive-analytical one whose data are collected from Kurdish daily conversations, news and the dialogues in series broadcasted in Kurdistan Channel. We examine 42 sentences containing copula verb bu:n out of 265 samples. Moreover, linguistic intuition of one of the authors is applied to analyze the data. 
 
4. Results and Discussion
The current study is carried out to figure out the distinction between the predicates made by the combination of adjectives and copula verb bu:n in Ardalan Variant. Kurdish has two copula verbs, ‘to be’ and ‘to become’, although their bare infinitive is the homonym bu:n. In spite of this similarity, the predicates made by adjectives and these copulas act differently from each other. It turns out that content applies restrictions on predicates, so that the predicate made by adjective and bu:n meant ‘to become’ always produces stage-level predicates. They often instill achievement predicates. However, the verb bu:n, ‘to be’, has some limitations in choosing adjectives. The findings reveal that in spite of being stative, the predicates made by bu:n, ‘to be’, are not all stative and individual-level. The sentences with such predicates sometimes show a kind of aspect-conversion. Therefore, it indicates that copula verb bu:n in not the only factor for aspect-conversion. In fact, the nature of the adjective in compound predicates is recognized as the other aspect-conversion factor in Sourani Kurdish. Therefore, the copula verb bu:n, ‘to be’, and classifying adjectives mainly make stative and individual-level predicates, although the predicates from the copula bu:n, ‘to be’, and qualifying  adjectives make stage-level predicates. 
 
5. Conclusions & Suggestions
The present study aims to figure out stative predicates made by adjectives and copula verb bu:n, as the light verb, in Sourani Kurdish. The findings reveal that these kinds of predicates face aspect-conversion. The copula verb bu:n is recognized as the main factor to change aspect. Kurdish has two auxiliaries, ‘to be’ and ‘to become’ whose bare infinitive is hyponym bu:n. As bu:n means ‘to become’, the predicate is always non-stative and stage-level. However, the predicates from bu:n, ‘to be’, and adjectives are not always stative. The second factor regarding aspect-conversion, is the nature of the adjective present in compound verbs. In fact, the classifying adjectives and the verb bu:n, ‘to be’, always make stative individual-level predicates, whereas the qualifying  adjectives make non-stative stage-level predicates. 
 
Select Bibliography
Arche,M.J. 2006. Individuals in time: Tense, aspect and the individual/stage distinction, Journal of Linguistics, 44 (2), 514-519.
Bache, C. 1978. The Order of Premodifying Adjectives in Present-day English, Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press.
Comrie, B. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.
Dowty, D. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Nashaat Assi, R. 2011. The Copula Verb Be in Modern English with Reference to Sourani- Dialect in Modern Kurdish. Humanity Studies, 6:2, 1- 14
Schmidt, R. 1972. L’adjective de et relation en français, anglais allemande. Göppingen: Alfred Kümmerle.
Schmitt, C. 1992. Ser and estar: A matter of aspect, North East Linguistic Society. 22, 411–426.
Smith, C.S. 1991/1997. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Vendler, Z. 1967. Verbs and times, In: Linguistics and Philosophy, Z. Vendler (ed.), 97–121.