Re: Copulas

In message <199903142334.SAA27853@...>, Tim Smith
<timsmith@...> writes
>At 07:27 PM 3/9/99 -0800, JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON wrote:
>>So how do copular constructions work in other people's conlangs?
>[snip]
>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.
>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"?)
In Elet Anta this would be expressed by a verb.  Later you say that this
would sometimes be the case Hwendaaru, but it's always so in EA.  And as
in Hwendaaru, there's a suffix to indicate attributive use:

   Colot sayl:  The house is white
   Saylye colot:  White house

>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").]
In EA, these are expressed using postpositional verbs:

   Shon colotonva:    John is in the house  (-onva: be at, in)
   Colot Shonuva:     The house belongs to John  (-uva: be of)
   Shon colotelva:    John has a house (-elva: have)

Also quite a few other things:

   Ayro sartanirva:   The holiday is on Sunday (-irva: be at (time))
   Inye halantsu nacsarka:  My health is because of spinach
                                            (-arka: be because of)
   In kascacipsa:     I used an axe (-ipsa: use)
   In Shonofca:       I was at John's home (-ofca: be at the home of)
   In Shonindu:       I was with John (-indu: be in the company of)

You can use these attributively as well:

   Colotonvay yencwa:   The person in the house
   Shonuvay colot:      John's house (Shonye colot is nore usual)
   Sartanirvay ayro:    The holiday on Sunday
   Nacsarkay halantsu inye:  My because-of-spinach health

>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"?)
These aren't distinguished in EA.  The copula "eti" is used, but is very
often omitted.

Btw, there are several other words which are traditionally classified as
copulas (etitolon) in EA:

   cawle         become
   eman          be in proportion to
   nakte         be called
   rent          resemble
...and the weird ones:
   tor           be better than
   tordo         be worse than

All these connect two noun phrases which are both in the base form (ie,
not the accusative).

 Istukeye bethenia pariamye fanonvay, tor pe-yangye bua vrandsanvay:
  A supper of herbs in a loving place is better than an enclosed cow
  in hatred

--
John Fisher   john@drummond.demon.co.uk   johnf@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Elet Anta website: http://www.drummond.demon.co.uk/anta/
Drummond ro cleshfan merec; fanye litoc, inye litoc