Re: Copulas

On Tue, 9 Mar 1999 19:27:25 -0800 JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON
<mpearson@...> writes:
>Speaking of copulas:  A little while ago we were talking about how for
>some people, irregularities and grammatical eccentricities seem to
>pop up as a result of using one's conlang, just because they happen
>to 'sound right'.  To my surprise, something like this appears to have
>happened with copulas in Tokana.
>I was rather surprised when I discovered this fact.
>This is one of the few cases I can think of where a particular
>grammatical pattern 'appeared' spontaneously, and I was forced
>to accept it because hey, that's just the way the language is.
>So how do copular constructions work in other people's conlangs?
>
>Matt.
>
Well, now that i know the terminology (thanks Sally and Matt!) i can say
that Rokbeigalmki is mandatorily zero-copula in the simple present:

_ az rish _, (i student) = "i am a student"
_ az nyih solgh _, (i not singer) = "i'm not a singer"
_ az nyeng solgh_, same thing as with _nyih_.

The reason that it's zero-copula is because there is no real simple
present tense in Rokbeigalmki, just a present-immediate and a
present-routine.  "to be" is the only verb that has a simple present
"form".
The non-automatic-positive (positive-intensive, negative, possible =
tihng/tih, nyeng/nyih, kaang/kih = yes/do, no/don't, maybe/might) are
usually used in their short form.  The long forms are generally used to
be more intensive.

_ aza-tezat sughel _, (i-[present-immediate] be monster) = "i'm being a
monster", for instance if someone is dressing up in a costume.
_ azoi-tezat suddezu _, (i-[present-routine] be [adj]-happiness) = "i'm
[generally] happy".

However, _tezat_ can also be dropped in the "conjugated" tenses.  There
are four verbs that can be dropped, leaving only the subject-tense
complex:
_tezat_ = be
_netz_ = be (location)
_mwe_ = go
_waz_ = do

For instance, here's a short conversation:

"ha'ezu-dalengk tze esedh?"     ( = did you clean your raft? )
"azu:!"     ( = i did! )

The actual verb can be inferred from context, for instance:

_amza: wa'ba:hhihr_ (we-[immediate] to ocean) = "we're [going] to the
ocean"
_ozoi: paz_ (he-[routine] here) = "he['s generally] here"

In conversation, however, sometimes the tense-vowel of the
present-immediate tense (/a/) is dropped in these constructions,
especially with the verb _netz_.


-Stephen (Steg)

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