<p>A quote from the 2017 paper "Some New Insight into the Historical Source of the Chinese Copula Shì/*deʔ 是 ":</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Wang (1937) claims that there was no genuine copula in the Chinese language until the emergence of the copula <em>shì</em> / *deʔ 是 around the 5th century — a dating he later modified to the 1st century (Wang 1958) — evolving from the demonstrative shì. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>That is the general consensus, and this idea has been established for the best part of 80 years.</p>

<p>However, there is the statement that:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>[S]ome later studies, especially those based on excavated materials (Qiu 1979; Tang 1991), argue that the copular use of <em>shì</em> starts from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Li and Thompson (1977) is the classic source for citing this well-trodden pathway cross-linguistically:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>TOPIC - COMMENT > SUBJECT - PREDICATE</p>
  
  <p>[NP1] - [<strong>DEM</strong>] [NP2] > [NP1 <strong>COPULA</strong> NP2]</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The 2017 paper quoted says that 是 was always somewhat atypical as a demonstrative, always having had anaphoric reference.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-11T16:51:14.313Z
2019-04-11T16:51:14.313Z
Michaelyus
<p>I know this question is somewhat unclear since the word <em>shi</em> 是 never <strong>only</strong> meant <em>this</em>, but carries (and has done so for a long time) several meanings.
The Gu Hanyu da cidian (via Pleco) lists some of them (not a direct quote; the numbers denote the century of the sources that the example sentences were taken from):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>正確(5)；訂正(3)；以爲是(-4)；表示肯定或加強肯定之詞(-3) etc.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>But very generally speaking, <em>shi</em> was used in the language of the Lunyu (which I call here Classical Chinese) to denote »this« rather than any of its other meanings.</p>

<p>But when did <em>shi</em> start to mainly have the meaning as a copula that it has today, <em>to be</em>, as in »She is a student«, »Those are books«?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-11T12:26:49.037Z
The specific reason I ask is: I have a sentence from a 16th century text by Luo Rufang (Luo Jinxi) and I’m not clear about a 是 in it, but that would be a different question.
Philipp
<etymology><word><classical-chinese>
When did the meaning of shi 是 shift from »this« (此) to being a copula (»be«)?
# When did the meaning of shi 是 shift from »this« (此) to being a copula (»be«)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-11)

I know this question is somewhat unclear since the word *shi* 是 never **only** meant *this*, but carries (and has done so for a long time) several meanings.
The Gu Hanyu da cidian (via Pleco) lists some of them (not a direct quote; the numbers denote the century of the sources that the example sentences were taken from):

> 正確(5)；訂正(3)；以爲是(-4)；表示肯定或加強肯定之詞(-3) etc.

But very generally speaking, *shi* was used in the language of the Lunyu (which I call here Classical Chinese) to denote »this« rather than any of its other meanings.

But when did *shi* start to mainly have the meaning as a copula that it has today, *to be*, as in »She is a student«, »Those are books«?

**Tags:** etymology, word, classical-chinese

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The specific reason I ask is: I have a sentence from a 16th century text by Luo Rufang (Luo Jinxi) and I’m not clear about a 是 in it, but that would be a different question.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-04-11. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

A quote from the 2017 paper "Some New Insight into the Historical Source of the Chinese Copula Shì/\*deʔ 是 ":

> Wang (1937) claims that there was no genuine copula in the Chinese language until the emergence of the copula *shì* / \*deʔ 是 around the 5th century — a dating he later modified to the 1st century (Wang 1958) — evolving from the demonstrative shì.

That is the general consensus, and this idea has been established for the best part of 80 years.

However, there is the statement that:

> [S]ome later studies, especially those based on excavated materials (Qiu 1979; Tang 1991), argue that the copular use of *shì* starts from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE).

Li and Thompson (1977) is the classic source for citing this well-trodden pathway cross-linguistically:

> TOPIC - COMMENT > SUBJECT - PREDICATE
>
> [NP1] - [**DEM**] [NP2] > [NP1 **COPULA** NP2]

The 2017 paper quoted says that 是 was always somewhat atypical as a demonstrative, always having had anaphoric reference.


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