Re: Copulas

On Sun, 14 Mar 1999, Tim Smith wrote:

> As I see it, "be" (and Indo-European copular verbs generally) have four
> distinct functions.  (And there may be others that I haven't thought of.)
> In other words, there are four different types of declarative sentence that
> all have the form "X is Y".  In all four types, X is a noun phrase, but Y is
> a different type of constituent in each of them.
>
        Interestingly enough, this is exactly how the division is drawn in
Doraya, which has three copula-ish verbs that fit nicely into your
following categories:

> Type 1:  Y is an adjective, and the sentence is an assertion that X has the
> attribute denoted by Y.  Example: "The house is white."  (The "descriptive
> copula"?)
>
        The Doraya verb _inai_ takes care of his function:

        inai li'uran   anla     inai inli'agar   onzo
        is   the-house white    are  the-animals angry
        The house is white.     The animals are angry.

> Type 2:  Y is a prepositional phrase or other adverbial denoting a location,
> or something that's at least a metaphorical extension of the notion of
> location, and the sentence is an assertion that X is at the location denoted
> by Y.  Example: "John is in the house."  (The "locative copula"?)  [Note:
> Some variant of this is used in most of my conlangs -- as, I gather, in the
> majority of natlangs -- to express predicative possession ("X belongs to Y"
> or "Y has X").]
>
        Doraya's verb _sen_ is like this, though it can be used with any
preposition, not just those related to location.  For example,

        sen dyan aeyn      li'uran     sen tyom lir        li'uran
        is  John inside-of the-house   is  dog  outside-of the-house
        John is in the house.          The dog is outside the house.

but also:

        sen liralia  ade   geda      sen unynosar     va           myr
        is  the-book about cheese    is  their-belief derived-from myth
        The book is about cheese.    Their belief originated as myth.

> Type 3:  Y is an indefinite NP denoting a class of entities, and the
> sentence is an assertion that X is a member of the class denoted by Y.
> Example: "John is a doctor."  (The "classifying copula"?)
>
> Type 4:  Y is a definite NP, and the sentence is an assertion that X and Y
> are coreferential.  Example: "John is the man we saw in the library
> yesterday."  (The "identifying" or "equative copula"?)
>
        Both of these are expressed using the verb _kai_:

        kai dyan sinla-yra-el
        is  John doctor
        John is a doctor.

        kai dyan likos   kes  dirae   erin soi   ke dili'olar
        is  John the-man that past-we see  it(r) at this-past-day
        John is the man that we say in the library yesterday.

Leaving you with yet another AFMCL post,
Adam
--
myth@inquo.net
http://www.inquo.net/~myth