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Re: Poijpohloneny

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Friday, June 6, 2003, 17:33
Hi!

"M. Astrand" <ysimiss@...> writes:
>... > >Are these all copula uses in Finnisch? > > If the verb in "The book is on the table" is not a copula, then the one in > "Kadulla on yksi koira" 'There is one dog on the street' shouldn't be either, > as they both equally indicate location. > To be sure that I have understood the copula thing correctly: is _become_ > a copula, too?
Well, I wanted to know whether that is the case in Finnish, too, because I had the impression that in German, it's a bit different. So I would not think it's universally a copula in that sentence. You could theoretically analyse 'is' in 'the book is on the table' in two ways: a) 'is' is a locative full verb (which, I learnt, is the case in English) b) 'is' is a copula and 'on the table' is a predicate (like 'red' can be and 'a man', too) that is transformed into a verb phrase with this copula. I argued that I think this is the case for German. Indications for b) would be that other copulas work, like 'bleiben' in German. But not all copulas need to work. 'become' = 'werden' in German does not work there, although it *is* a copula. In English, 'become' is a copula, too, yes. It works with 'red', which I think is a good test.
> >And is the following a good > >sentence: > > > > ?Min

Reply

M. Astrand <ysimiss@...>