In most languages with nominal sentences such as Russian, Arabic and Hebrew, the copular verb does not surface in indicatival present tense sentences. Conversely, these languages allow the copular verb in non-present sentences.
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Mandarin Chinese exhibits both DP-DP and DP-CP structures, and it is classified as having copular equative construction because there is overt copula. The copular verb 是 shì can be used in both of these structures.
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Other special uses of copular verbs are described in some of the following sections.
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A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb.
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Jo, J. M. (2007). Word Order Variations in Korean Copular Constructions. 언어학, 15(3), 209-238.
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Another difficult case for identifying the subject is the so-called inverse copular construction, e.g.For in depth studies of inverse copular constructions, see Moro (1997) and Mikkelsen (2005). ::a. The boys are a chaotic force around here. ::b. A chaotic force around here is the boys.
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Regarding negative copular clauses, Lishanid Noshan differentiates constructions that use the negative present versus the negative past.
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A copular verb may also have other uses supplementary to or distinct from its uses as a copula.
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This description concerns Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Like Russian and Polish, MSA uses no copular verb in present tense equative sentences but requires one in the past and future. The subject and predicate in MSA equative sentences must agree in case (nominative), number, and gender Abdel-Ghafer, O. (2003). Copular constructions in modern standard Arabic, modern Hebrew and English.
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Equative (Identificational) Copular Construction as shown in (10), both nominal expressions in the Equative Copular Construction are referential expressions and hence denote individual entities denoted by the two nominal expressions. The construction expresses the identity relation between the entities denoted by the two nominal expressions. (10) Chelswu-ka [ne-ka ecey ttayli-n salam]-i-ta. C-Nom you-Nom yesterday hit-Adn person-Cop-Decl ‘Chelswu is the one that you hit yesterday.’ Since the Equative Copular Construction is involved with the two referential nouns, no word order restriction is expected with regard to the focus information.
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Languages differ in the way they express such meanings; some of them use the copular verb, possibly with an expletive pronoun like the English there, while other languages use different verbs and constructions, like the French il y a (which uses parts of the verb avoir "to have," not the copula être) or the Swedish finns (the passive voice of the verb for "to find"). For details, see existential clause. Relying on a unified theory of copular sentences, it has been proposed that the English there-sentences are subtypes of inverse copular constructions.See Moro 1997, and "existential sentences and expletive there" in Everaert et al.
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In the present indicative 3rd person, copular verbs are not used; rather the absence of a verb (with or without a negation particle) implies the copula.
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Crystal, David. (2003) A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics (5th edition). New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Lexical verbs are categorized into five categories: copular, intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, and ambitransitive.
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Geist Geist, L. (2007). Predication and equation in copular sentences: Russian vs. english. (pp. 79-105). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. claims that there are no monoclausal equatives in Russian.
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For example: "Her daughter was a writing tutor." "The singers were very nervous." "My house is down the street." Adjectives that come after copular verbs are predicate adjectives, and nouns that come after linking verbs are predicate nouns.
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Equative sentences resemble predicative sentences in that they have two noun phrases and the copular verb ‘to be’. However, the similarity is superficial. Compare the following two sentences: (4) Cicero is Tully. (5) Cicero is an orator and philosopher.
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Hungarian has lost most evidence of a negative verb, but the negation particle 'nem' becomes 'ne' before verbs in the jussive/imperative (also sometimes called the conditional mood, or J-mood). Furthermore, the 3rd person present indicative of the copular verb ('lenni') has unique negative forms 'nincs(en)' and 'nincsenek' as opposed to 'nem van' and 'nem vannak', but only when the particle and verb would occur adjacently. In all other instances the copular verb acts regularly. These forms are also unique in that they have an existential role "there is (not)" and "there are (not)".
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It has been proposed that elements like expletive there in existential sentences and pro in inverse copular sentences play the role of dummy predicate rather than dummy subject, so that the postverbal noun phrase would rather be the embedded subject of the sentence.
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Many phrases have the outward appearance of an adjunct but are in fact (part of) a predicate instead. The confusion occurs often with copular verbs, in particular with a form of be, e.g. ::It is under the bush. ::The party is at seven o'clock.
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This particular type of copular comes before the predicate in Lishanid Noshan very often. The main stress is inserted either on the predicate phrase or on la, the negator in Lishanid Noshan. Subject nominals are seen either before or after the copula. :lá-wela mga-làxxa'.
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As with English and modern Chinese, Old Chinese sentences can be analysed as a subject (a noun phrase, sometimes understood) followed by a predicate, which could be of either nominal or verbal type. Before the Classical period, nominal predicates consisted of a copular particle followed by a noun phrase: The negated copula is attested in oracle bone inscriptions, and later fused as . In the Classical period, nominal predicates were constructed with the sentence-final particle instead of the copula , but was retained as the negative form, with which was optional: The copular verb (shì) of Literary and Modern Chinese dates from the Han period. In Old Chinese the word was a near demonstrative ('this').
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Inverse copular constructions are intriguing because they render the distinction between subject and predicative expression difficult to maintain. The confusion has led to focused study of these constructions,Inverse copular constructions have been explored in great depth. See Moro (1997) for the original proposal, Heycock and Kroch (1998), Pereltsvaig (2001), Mikkelsen (2005). and their impact on the theory of grammar may be great since they appear to challenge the initial binary division of the sentence (S) into a subject noun phrase (NP) and a predicate verb phrase (VP) (S → NP VP), this division being at the core of all phrase structure grammars (as opposed to dependency grammars, which do not acknowledge the binary division).
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Inverse copular constructions challenge one of the major dogmas of the theory of clause or sentence structure, i.e. that the two basic constituents of a sentence - the noun phrase (NP) and the verb phrase (VP) - are associated with the logical/grammatical functions of subject and predicate (cf. phrase structure rules and sentence). In fact, copular sentences that maintain the canonical groupings are not adequate on empirical grounds, since a very unorthodox left-branching structure is necessary, or if one rejects the canonical groupings and positions the subject inside a VP-like constituent, then one has to assume that the subject NP and copula verb can form a type of VP to the exclusion of the predicative expression.
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This description concerns the Interior Salish language of the Colville-Okanagan region, named Nsyilxcən. Its classification here as non-copular is due to its lack of an overt copula. Rather, Nsyilxcən equatives are said to be projections of a null head. Nsyilxcən DP-DP structures involve a null, equative copula.
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The English copular verb be has eight forms (more than any other English verb): be, am, is, are, being, was, were, been. Additional archaic forms include art, wast, wert, and occasionally beest (as a subjunctive). For more details see English verbs. For the etymology of the various forms, see Indo-European copula.
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The verb go is an irregular verb in the English language (see English irregular verbs). It has a wide range of uses; its basic meaning is "to move from one place to another". Apart from the copular verb be, the verb go is the only English verb to have a suppletive past tense, namely went.
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Heycock claims that specificational sentences are an 'asymmetric' equation because the noun phrase that occurs in clause-initial position is interpreted as a more intentional subject than is the post-copular noun phrase. Den Dikken Den Dikken, M. (2006). Relators and linkers: The syntax of predication, predicate inversion, and copulas (Vol. 47). MIT Press.
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Do-support is not used when there is already an auxiliary or copular verb present or with non-finite verb forms (infinitives and participles). It is sometimes used with subjunctive forms. Furthermore, the use of do as an auxiliary should be distinguished from the use of do as a normal lexical verb, as in They do their homework.
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Different world languages approach equatives in different ways. The major difference between languages is whether or not they use a copular verb or a non-verbal element (e.g. demonstrative pronoun) to equate the two expressions. The term equative is also sometimes applied to comparative-like constructions in which the degrees compared are identical rather than distinct: e.g.
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However such inversion is only possible with an auxiliary or copular verb; if no such verb would otherwise be present, do-support is used. In most imperative clauses the subject is absent: Eat your dinner! However imperative clauses may include the subject for emphasis: You eat your dinner!. The form of the verb is the base form of the verb, such as eat, write, be.
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If a sentence includes a verb, the normal word order is verb—subject—object(s), as in lʕnw (V) dwšrʔ wmnwtw wqyšh (S) kl mn dy ... (O) 'may Dushara and Manat and Qayshah curse anyone who ...'. If a sentence does not include a verb, it is copular. It then consists of two noun phrases which make up the subject and predicate, as in dnh (S) kprʔ ... (P) 'this is the grave ...'.
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There is also an impersonal passive construction, with the agent replaced by an indefinite pronoun. Portuguese is generally an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null subject language, with a tendency to drop object pronouns as well, in colloquial varieties. Like Spanish, it has two main copular verbs: ser and estar.
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Are marginal members of the noun category. Semantically the describe some property or quality attributed to something and grammatically they usually behave like adjectives, that is they occur as adjuncts in a copular verb phrase. However unlike adjectives they do occasionally appear in distinctly nominal slots such as in the subject or object position to a verb. Further, unlike an adjective, they cannot simply follow a head noun as an adjunct.
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Dordrecht: Springer. The distinction between predicational and equative sentences is motivated by a word order restriction that is for DP-DP structures in answer to WH-questions, which is not apparent for a corresponding direct predication. As well, Nsyilxcən does not have specificational sentences in the classic sense, but it does have DP-DP equatives with a fixed information structure resembling inverse specificational copular clauses in English.Lyon, J. (2013).
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Topic-and- comment constructions are often used. Neither a topic, nor the subject nor objects are mandatory, being often dropped when their meaning is understood (pragmatically inferable), and copular sentences often do not have a verb. Within a noun phrase, demonstratives, quantifying determiners, adjectives, possessors and relative clauses precede the head noun, while cardinal numbers can appear before or after the noun they modify. Within a verb phrase, adverbs usually appear before a verb.
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In linguistics, inverse copular constructions, named after Moro (1997), are a type of inversion in English where canonical SCP word order ( _s_ ubject- _c_ opula- _p_ redicative expression, e.g. Fred is the plumber) is reversed in a sense, so that one appears to have the order PCS instead ( _p_ redicative expression- _c_ opula- _s_ ubject, e.g. The plumber is Fred). The verb in these constructions is always the copula be (am, are, is, was, were).
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Caroline Heycock Heycock, C. (2012). Specification, equation, and agreement in copular sentences. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics/La revue canadienne de linguistique, 57(2), 209-240. contributes to the discussion about whether specificational sentences are a special type of equatives or if they can be reduced to 'inverted predications': she argues that these sentences are a type of equative in which only one of the two noun phrases is a simple individual.
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A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case. A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb. In English primary education grammar courses, a copula is often called a linking verb. In other languages, copulas show more resemblances to pronouns, as in Classical Chinese and Guarani, or may take the form of suffixes attached to a noun, as in Korean, Beja, and Inuit languages.
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A headline is text above a newspaper article, indicating its topic. The headline catches the attention of the reader and relates well to the topic. Modern headlines are typically written in an abbreviated style omitting many elements of a complete sentence and almost always including a non-copular verb. Mainstream media are influenced by issues of objective importance when deciding to report a story and its headline, but also on its newsworthiness, especially when it is competing with other media outlets.
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The English copular verb be can be used as an auxiliary verb, expressing passive voice (together with the past participle) or expressing progressive aspect (together with the present participle): ::The man was killed. (passive) ::It is raining. (progressive) Other languages' copulas have additional uses as auxiliaries. For example, French être can be used to express passive voice similarly to English be, and both French être and German sein are used to express the perfect forms of certain verbs: ::Je suis arrivé.
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In linguistics, inversion is any of several grammatical constructions where two expressions switch their canonical order of appearance, that is, they invert. There are several types of subject-verb inversion in English: locative inversion, directive inversion, copular inversion, and quotative inversion. The most frequent type of inversion in English is subject–auxiliary inversion in which an auxiliary verb changes places with its subject; it often occurs in questions, such as Are you coming?, with the subject you is switched with the auxiliary are.
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The term equative (or equational) is used in linguistics to refer to constructions where two entities are equated with each other. For example, the sentence Susan is our president, equates two entities "Susan" and "our president". In English, equatives are typically expressed using a copular verb such as "be", although this is not the only use of this verb. Equatives can be contrasted with predicative constructions where one entity is identified as a member of a set, such as Susan is a president.
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Verbs vary by type, and each type is determined by the kinds of words that accompany it and the relationship those words have with the verb itself. Classified by the number of their valency arguments, usually three basic types are distinguished: intransitives, transitives, ditransitives and double transitive verbs. Some verbs have special grammatical uses and hence complements, such as copular verbs (i.e., be); the verb "do" used for do-support in questioning and negation, and tense or aspect auxiliaries, e.g.
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In mathematical genetics, a genetic algebra is a (possibly non-associative) algebra used to model inheritance in genetics. Some variations of these algebras are called train algebras, special train algebras, gametic algebras, Bernstein algebras, copular algebras, zygotic algebras, and baric algebras (also called weighted algebra). The study of these algebras was started by . In applications to genetics, these algebras often have a basis corresponding to the genetically different gametes, and the structure constant of the algebra encode the probabilities of producing offspring of various types.
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Single verb as the head of predicates is infrequent in the corpus, as most heads of predicates (of both matrix and dependent clauses) are serial verb constructions. In addition, there is no clear distinction between copular clauses and nonverbal clauses The clauses inside Poula complex sentences have one matrix clause and one or more dependent clauses. In such constructions, typically, Poula verbs in dependent clauses are marked differently than the verbs in matrix clauses. Poula nonfinite dependent clauses mostly occur to the left of matrix clause.
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Usually, however, verbs expressing qualities are qualified by an adverb (meaning "very," "not," "quite," etc.); when not otherwise qualified, they are often preceded by 很 hěn, which in other contexts means "very," but in this use often has no particular meaning. Only sentences with a noun as the complement (e.g., "This is my sister") use the copular verb "to be": . This is used frequently; for example, instead of having a verb meaning "to be Chinese," the usual expression is "to be a Chinese person" (; "I am a Chinese person;" "I am Chinese").
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After the opening sequence, Noodle is shown playing chess against Remi Kabaka, one of the producers for The Now Now and Russel's voice actor, and checkmating him. Ace Copular (who replaced Murdoc while he was in jail) is then seen watching two men play basketball in front of a mural of George Benson. When one of them makes a dunk and the ball lands in Ace's hands, he takes out a pocket knife and deflates it, making it impossible for them to keep playing. After this, various video clips of local residents are shown.
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Wh-questions often use a stressed copular pronoun and an unstressed particle cia that precedes the dependent form of a verb. The stressed wh-copula generally agrees in number and gender with any attached nominal predicate, with cía serving as the masculine singular, cisí or cessi as feminine singular, cid as neuter, and either citné or cisné as plural. There are exceptions to this agreement attested, such as airm "place, where", which is feminine but takes cía. When used without a nominal predicate, the pronoun means "who" and means "what".
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Later texts from the Middle English era, now based on an eastern Midland rather than a Wessex standard, reflect the significant impact that Norse had on the language. In all, English borrowed about 2000 words from Old Norse, several hundred surviving in Modern English. Norse borrowings include many very common words, such as anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, window, and even the pronoun they. Norse influence is also believed to have reinforced the adoption of the plural copular verb form are rather than alternative Old English forms like sind.
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Negation of verbs usually takes place with the addition of the particle not (or its shortened form n't) to an auxiliary or copular verb, with do-support being used if there is otherwise no auxiliary. However, if a sentence already contains a negative word (never, nothing, etc.), then there is not usually any additional not. Questions (interrogative constructions) are generally formed using subject–auxiliary inversion, again using do-support if there is otherwise no auxiliary. In negative questions, it is possible to invert with just the auxiliary (should we not help?) or with the contracted negation (shouldn't we help?).
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The verb be also has a number of suppletive forms (be, is, was, etc., with various different origins) – this is common for copular verbs in Indo-European languages. The regularity and irregularity of verbs is affected by changes taking place by way of analogy – there is often a tendency for verbs to switch to a different, usually more regular, pattern under the influence of other verbs. This is less likely when the existing forms are very familiar through common use – hence among the most common verbs in a language (like be, have, go, etc.) there is often a greater incidence of irregularity.
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The situation is similar with the strong verbs in German (these may or may not be described as irregular). In French, what are traditionally called the "regular -re verbs" (those that conjugate like vendre) are not in fact particularly numerous, and may alternatively be considered to be just another group of similarly behaving irregular verbs. The most unambiguously irregular verbs are often very commonly used verbs such as the copular verb be in English and its equivalents in other languages, which frequently have a variety of suppletive forms and thus follow an exceptionally unpredictable pattern of conjugation.
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Analysis of these sentences will show that there is a radical difference between the equative sentence and the predicational sentence in English. The predicational sentence in (5) ascribes the property to the referent noun phrase whereas the equative sentence basically says that the first and second noun phrase share the same referent. It is difficult to distinguish between a predicative and equative sentence in English as both use a similar construction and both require the copular verb ‘to be’. Unlike specificational sentences, truly equative sentences cannot be analyzed as syntactically inverted predications, because neither expression is functioning as a predicate.
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The copular verb be has multiple irregular forms in the present tense: am for first person singular (which together with the subject pronoun is often contracted to I'm), is for third person singular (often contracted to 's), and are for plural and second person (often contracted to 're chiefly after the pronouns you, we, they). It also has two past tense forms: was for first and third person singular, and were for plural and second person (also used as a past subjunctive with all persons; see English subjunctive). The past participle is been, and the present participle and gerund is the regular being. The base form be is used regularly as an infinitive, imperative and (present) subjunctive.
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The English to be, and its equivalents in certain other languages, also have a non-copular use as an existential verb, meaning "to exist." This use is illustrated in the following sentences: I want only to be, and that is enough; I think therefore I am; To be or not to be, that is the question. In these cases, the verb itself expresses a predicate (that of existence), rather than linking to a predicative expression as it does when used as a copula. In ontology it is sometimes suggested that the "is" of existence is reducible to the "is" of property attribution or class membership; to be, Aristotle held, is to be something.
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Verbal constructions may make use of synthetic verb forms which are marked to indicate person (the number of such forms is limited), tense, mood, and voice (active, impersonal/passive). Gaelic has very few irregular verbs, conjugational paradigms being remarkably consistent for two verb classes, with the two copular or "be" verbs being the most irregular. In the paradigm of the verb, the majority of verb-forms are not person-marked and independent pronouns are required as in English, Norwegian and other languages. Alongside constructions involving synthetic verb forms, analytic (or 'periphrastic') aspectual constructions are extremely frequently used and in many cases are obligatory (compare English "be + -ing" and Spanish "estar + -Vndo" verbal constructions).
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In descriptions of the Japanese language, an adjectival noun, adjectival, or na-adjective is a noun that can function as an adjective by taking the particle 〜な -na. (In comparison, regular nouns can function adjectivally by taking the particle 〜の -no, which is analyzed as the genitive case.) Adjectival nouns constitute one of several Japanese word classes that can be considered equivalent to adjectives. In their attributive function, Japanese adjectival nouns function similarly to English noun adjuncts, as in "chicken soup" or "winter coat" – in these cases, the nouns "chicken" and "winter" modify the nouns "soup" and "coat", respectively. Japanese adjectival nouns can also be used predicatively – in that use, they do not take the -na suffix, but normally combine with forms of the copular verb.
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Do-support (or do-insertion), in English grammar, is the use of the auxiliary verb do, including its inflected forms does and did, to form negated clauses and questions as well as other constructions in which subject–auxiliary inversion is required. The verb "do" can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, and it usually serves to add emphasis, as in "I did shut the fridge." However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the conventions of Modern English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. It is not idiomatic in Modern English to add the negating word not to a lexical verb with finite form; not can be added only to an auxiliary or copular verb.
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A copular predicate is necessary for use with nominal and adjectival predicates. The predicate connects noun and adjective and a nominal predicate compliments both. When using present tense the copula is zero, past and future tenses have their distinct copula. We can see how this works in the following sentences: > "kit ma:ʔeɬtawaʔae:ní I am a teacher "kit ma:ʔeɬtawaʔae:ní ʃakwaní: I was a > teacher "kit ma:ʔeɬtawaʔae:ní nakwán I will be a teacher" In the following example we can see how the verb “wan” (meaning “be”) is what the copula is based on. Through the morphological derivation the copula joins with the desiderative suffix “-kutun” giving us the meaning of “wanting to X,” as seen below: > "tsamá: ʔawátʔa púʃku wankutún the boy wants to be a chief (someday)" Predicate nominals follow a word order with the subject at the beginning and verb at the end so that the copula is between them.
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