Re: Copula

H.S. Teoh wrote:
<<
ObConlang: Tatari Faran has no copula, period. It gets by with simple
juxtaposition. In a simple statement of equivalence, e.g., "That is a
rabbit", the equivalent of the English subject is in the conveyant case,
and the predicate is in the absolutive case:

	mei   sei      tiki.
	(this CVY.FEM) rabbit
	This is a rabbit.
 >>

I always wondered about tenses other than the unmarked tense
in languages that do this.  For example, in Zhyler, the copula can
be dropped if the subject is third person and the tense is present.
It's required, otherwise, because it carries pronominal information
and tense information.  In Russian, there's no copula--in the present.
But if you want to say "He was a teacher", or "He used to be a
teacher", you do need to have a verb there.  Kamakawi is lucky,
because the tense information is encoded on non-verb particles,
and there's no agreement.  I've never been clear on how one gets
by without a copula in languages that don't have one when the
verb ordinarily encodes tense information.  I know that in Tatari
Faran, the tense information is encoded with adverbs.  Are there
any conlangs that are like Russian in the present?  If so, what do
they do in other tenses?

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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