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In:A Layered Approach to Habitual Constructions
Edited by Sune Gregersen and Kees Hengeveld
[Typological Studies in Language 136] 2026
► pp. 42–79

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Chapter 2
The habitual construction in Sahidic Coptic

 | Leiden University
 | University of Amsterdam
Published online: 6 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.136.02van
Abstract
This chapter offers the first synchronic functional analysis of the Habitual in Sahidic Coptic. It is based on six recently edited or re-edited textual sources. We demonstrate that the semantically prototypical Habitual, marked by the morpheme šare/ša= or its alternants, occurs in the narrative discourse mode and operates at the lower layers in the layered structure of Functional Discourse Grammar. This prototypical Habitual is contrasted with other uses of verbal forms marked with šare/ša= which occur in the persuasive, procedural and performative discourse modes and are treated as semantic extensions of the Habitual: generic extensions, quotative indexes, prescriptive Habituals and performatives. The differences between these uses involve their compatibility with specific grammatical operators and modifiers, the possibility to occur in complement clauses and the referential characteristics of the participants.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sahidic Coptic
    • 2.1Overview
    • 2.2A note on transliteration and glossing
  • 3.The habitual strategy in Coptic
    • 3.1Introduction
      • 3.1.1Morphological markers of the Habitual
      • 3.1.2Discourse modes and the Coptic Habitual
    • 3.2The subtypes of the habitual strategy
      • 3.2.1The Representational Level (1): From Lexical Properties via Situational Properties and States-of-Affairs through Episodes
        • 3.2.1.1Introduction
        • 3.2.1.2Scope relations: Modifiers
        • 3.2.1.3Scope relations: Operators
        • 3.2.1.4Complementation
        • 3.2.1.5Interpretation: Summarizing scheme
      • 3.2.2The Representational Level (2): Generic Habituals at the layer of the Propositional Content
        • 3.2.2.1Introduction
          • Class A
          • Class B
          • Class C
        • 3.2.2.2Scope relations: Modifiers
        • 3.2.2.3Scope relations: Operators
        • 3.2.2.4Complementation
        • 3.2.2.5Interpretation: Specificity effects
      • 3.2.3Interpersonal level (1): Quotative indexes and operations on Communicated Contents
      • 3.2.4The Interpersonal Level (2): Behavioral Illocutions (1), prescriptive Habituals
        • 3.2.4.1Introduction
        • 3.2.4.2Scope relations: Modifiers
        • 3.2.4.3Scope relations: Operators
        • 3.2.4.4Complementation
        • 3.2.4.5Interpretation: Specificity effects
      • 3.2.5The Interpersonal Level (3): Behavioral Illocutions (2), performative extensions of the Habitual
        • 3.2.5.1Introduction
        • 3.2.5.2Scope relations: Modifiers
        • 3.2.5.3Scope relations: Operators
        • 3.2.5.4Complementation
        • 3.2.5.5Interpretation
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Corpus
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