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Re: Copulas

From:Adam Parrish <myth@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 16, 1999, 1:11
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