cop: copula
A copula is the relation between the complement of a copular verb and the copular verb essere (only). The copula be is not treated as the head of a clause, but rather as the dependent of a lexical predicate, as exemplified below.
I cinque sarebbero tutti immigrati clandestini
nsubj(immigrati, cinque)
cop(immigrati, sarebbero)
Per questo sono ambiziosi
cop(ambiziosi, sono)
Secondo l' Onu sono 200 mila le persone
nsubj(persone, mila)
compound(mila, 200)
cop(mila, sono)
This analysis is generally not adopted when the predicate is a prepositional phrase, in which case the nominal part of the prepositional phrase is the head of the clause, with a few exception in case of idiomatic forms, such as in forma in shape, expressing a property.
La scultura è di il pachistano Hamad Butt
nsubj(è, scultura)
case(Hamad, di)
det(Hamad, il)
nmod(è, Hamad)
amod(Hamad, pachistano)
name(Hamad, Butt)
If the copula is accompanied by other verbal auxiliaries (e.g. for tense), they are taken as dependents of the lexical predicate:
Non venne mai chiarito quale formazione era stata responsabile
det(formazione, quale)
nsubj(responsabile, formazione)
aux(responsabile, era)
cop(responsabile, stata)
Treebank Statistics (UD_Italian)
This relation is universal.
2767 nodes (1%) are attached to their parents as cop.
2152 instances of cop (78%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.67040115648717.
The following 11 pairs of parts of speech are connected with cop: it-pos/ADJ-it-pos/VERB (1073; 39% instances), it-pos/NOUN-it-pos/VERB (870; 31% instances), it-pos/PRON-it-pos/VERB (682; 25% instances), it-pos/PROPN-it-pos/VERB (42; 2% instances), it-pos/VERB-it-pos/VERB (34; 1% instances), it-pos/ADV-it-pos/VERB (32; 1% instances), it-pos/NUM-it-pos/VERB (19; 1% instances), it-pos/ADJ-it-pos/AUX (9; 0% instances), it-pos/NOUN-it-pos/AUX (3; 0% instances), it-pos/X-it-pos/VERB (2; 0% instances), it-pos/VERB-it-pos/AUX (1; 0% instances).
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1 È essere VERB V Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 cop _ _
2 vero vero ADJ A Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 0 root _ _
3 , , PUNCT FF _ 2 punct _ _
4 tutti tutto PRON PI Gender=Masc|Number=Plur|PronType=Ind 7 nsubjpass _ _
5 possiamo potere AUX VM Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux _ _
6 essere essere AUX VA VerbForm=Inf 7 auxpass _ _
7 sostituiti sostituire VERB V Gender=Masc|Number=Plur|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 2 parataxis _ _
8 . . PUNCT FS _ 2 punct _ _
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1 Questa questo DET DD Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 2 det _ _
2 ricchezza ricchezza NOUN S Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _
3 è essere VERB V Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _
4 tutta tutto PRON PI Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 5 advmod _ _
5 apparenza apparenza NOUN S Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 0 root _ _
6 . . PUNCT FS _ 5 punct _ _
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1 È essere AUX VA Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 aux _ _
2 stata essere VERB V Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 3 cop _ _
3 quello quello PRON PD Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 0 root _ _
4 che che PRON PR PronType=Rel 7 dobj _ _
5 ci ci PRON PC PronType=Clit 7 advmod _ _
6 si si PRON PC Person=3|PronType=Clit 7 expl:impers _ _
7 attendeva attendere VERB V Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 3 acl:relcl _ _
8 : : PUNCT FC _ 3 punct _ _
cop in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]