cop: copula
A copula is the relation between the complement of a copular verb and the copular verb. Copular heads are avoided when possible.
Bill is an honest man
cop(man, is)
nsubj(man, Bill)
amod(man, honest)
det(man, an)
Prepositional phrases are annotated similarly, the only difference being that the nominal predicate has an additional case marker.
Bill is from California
case(California, from)
cop(California, is)
nsubj(California, Bill)
When an adjective or adverb is being predicated of a nominal phrase, the
adjective/adverb is the root, the nominal phrase is the nsubj, and the
copula is the cop.
Bill is honest
nsubj(honest, Bill)
cop(honest, is)
It was yesterday
nsubj(yesterday, It)
cop(yesterday, was)
Prepositions may also project a cop dependent.
The light is on
cop(on, is)
nsubj(on, light)
det(light, The)
In predicative wh-constructions, the fronted wh-word is the head, and the copula follows.
What is that ?
cop(What, is)
nsubj(What, that)
The cop may mark a predicate clause, i.e., a full clause serving as the predicate within an outer copular clause.
In such cases, nsubj:outer or csubj:outer can be used to distinguish the outer subject:
-ROOT- The problem is that this has never been tried .
nsubj:outer(tried, problem)
cop(tried, is)
mark(tried, that)
nsubj:pass(tried, this)
aux(tried, has)
advmod(tried, never)
aux:pass(tried, been)
root(-ROOT-, tried)
The important thing is to keep calm .
nsubj:outer(keep, thing)
cop(keep, is)
mark(keep, to)
xcomp(keep, calm)
Predicative “be” is the only verb recognized as a copula; other copula-like verbs, such as “become”, “get”, and “seem”, are treated as regular raising verbs, and thus take xcomp arguments. In its non-predicative uses—e.g., when used in periphrastic verbal constructions, presentationals, or existentials—”be” is attached with aux or aux:pass, or is considered the root of the clause.
Bill got rich
nsubj(got, Bill)
xcomp(got, rich)
Bill is speaking
nsubj(speaking, Bill)
aux(speaking, is)
I was given a horse
nsubj:pass(given, I)
aux:pass(given, was)
Here are some bags
advmod(are, Here)
nsubj(are, bags)
det(bags, some)
There 's/VERB a cow in the field
expl('s, There)
nsubj('s, cow)
det(cow, a)
obl('s, field)
det(field, the)
case(field, in)
cop in other languages: [bej] [bg] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [et] [eu] [fi] [fo] [fr] [fro] [ga] [gsw] [hy] [id] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [ro] [ru] [sl] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [urj] [vi] [yue] [zh]