cop: copula
In Irish, there is a distinction between the substantive verb bí `to be’, which inflects for tense, mood and person as per all Irish verbs – and the copula is, which only has two tensed forms - present/future and past/conditional.
Bí, as a verb, uses separate particles in negative and interrogative constructions. Is (copula) uses its own forms in these constructions. For example:
- ba (conditional/ past - positive)
- ar (past/ interrogative - positive)
- nach (present/ future - interrogative/ negative)
- ní (present/ future - negative)
The order of elements in a copula construction is in general: copula, predicate (new or focussed information), and subject
cop is used to link the copula verb is and its predicate. See xcomp:pred to see how the verb bí is linked to a predicate.
Examples
#### equative construction
Is múinteoir é ‘He is a teacher’
Is múinteoir é \n is teacher him
cop(múinteoir, Is)
idiomatic expressions
Ba mhaith liom gan fanacht ‘I would like not to stay’
Ba mhaith liom gan fanacht \n Be good with_me without staying
cop(mhaith, Ba)
cleft constructions
Is iad a bheidh ina gcomhaltaí de na coistí sin ‘It is they who will be members of those committees’
Is iad a bheidh ina gcomhaltaí de na coistí sin \n Is they who will_be in_their members of the committees that
cop(iad,Is)
ownership constructions
An leatsa é? ‘Is it yours?’
An leatsa é ? \n Is with_you it ?
cop(leatsa, An)
Treebank Statistics (UD_Irish)
This relation is universal.
373 nodes (2%) are attached to their parents as cop.
368 instances of cop (99%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.23592493297587.
The following 11 pairs of parts of speech are connected with cop: ga-pos/NOUN-ga-pos/VERB (144; 39% instances), ga-pos/ADJ-ga-pos/VERB (126; 34% instances), ga-pos/ADP-ga-pos/VERB (46; 12% instances), ga-pos/PRON-ga-pos/VERB (35; 9% instances), ga-pos/PROPN-ga-pos/VERB (10; 3% instances), ga-pos/ADV-ga-pos/VERB (4; 1% instances), ga-pos/ADJ-ga-pos/PART (3; 1% instances), ga-pos/VERB-ga-pos/VERB (2; 1% instances), ga-pos/ADP-ga-pos/SCONJ (1; 0% instances), ga-pos/DET-ga-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), ga-pos/X-ga-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances).
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1 An is VERB Cop Mood=Int|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Cop 4 cop _ _
2 iad iad PRON Pers Number=Plur|Person=3 4 nmod _ _
3 na na DET Art Definite=Def|Number=Plur|PronType=Art 4 det _ _
4 daoine duine NOUN Noun Case=Com|Definite=Def|Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 0 root _ _
5 siúd siúd DET Det PronType=Dem 4 det _ _
6 na na DET Art Definite=Def|Number=Plur|PronType=Art 7 det _ _
7 buaiteoirí buaiteoir NOUN Noun Case=Com|Definite=Def|Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 4 nsubj _ _
8 ? ? PUNCT ? _ 4 punct _ _
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1 Ba is VERB Cop Tense=Past|VerbForm=Cop 2 cop _ _
2 léir léir ADJ Adj Degree=Pos 0 root _ _
3 dó do ADP Prep Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3 2 nmod:prep _ _
4 misneach misneach NOUN Noun Case=Com|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _
5 agus agus CONJ Coord _ 4 cc _ _
6 dúshlán dúshlán NOUN Noun Case=Com|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 4 conj _ _
7 céadach céadach ADJ Adj Case=Com|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 6 amod _ _
8 na na DET Art Case=Gen|Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 10 det _ _
9 seacht seacht NUM Num NumType=Card 10 nummod _ _
10 dtúr túr NOUN Noun Case=Gen|Form=Ecl|Gender=Masc|NounType=Weak|Number=Plur 4 compound _ _
11 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _
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1 B' is VERB Cop Form=VF|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Cop 2 cop _ _
2 in i ADP Simp _ 0 root _ _
3 é é PRON Pers Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3 2 nmod _ _
4 an an DET Art Definite=Def|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 5 det _ _
5 uair uair NOUN Noun Case=Com|Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _
6 a a PART Vb PartType=Vb|PronType=Rel 7 nsubj _ _
7 baineadh bain VERB VTI Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|Voice=Auto 5 acl:relcl _ _
8 an an DET Art Definite=Def|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 9 det _ _
9 gheit geit NOUN Noun Case=Com|Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 7 dobj _ _
10 as as ADP Simp _ 11 case _ _
11 Pádhraic Pádhraic PROPN Noun Case=Com|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 7 nmod _ _
12 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _
cop in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]