In:Footprints of Phrase Structure: Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 288] 2025
► pp. 300–326
Habitual be in American English
Published online: 2 October 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.14hol
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.14hol
Abstract
This paper examines an obscure use of the verb be in English, which under certain
circumstances may be inflected as be’s to indicate the habituation of a predicate (type If
she just be’s (??is) herself, she’ll do fine in the debate). After a description of the data, I show that
this construction differs in its distribution from the habitual be familiar from African American English,
making it unlikely to be a borrowing. I then give an account of the semantics and syntax of habitual
be’s as distinct from the simple copula, observing that habitual be’s is
restricted to just those predicates compatible with the progressive is being construction and that
both constructions must have a stage-level interpretation and an agentive subject.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Data and description
- 3.Comparison to “aspectual” be in AAE
- 4.Distinguishing substantive be from the copula
- 5.Semantics of be2
- 6.Syntax of be2
- 7.Conclusion and further research
?ack? Notes References
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