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 is another cop.
What is that ?
cop(What, is)
nsubj(What, that)
However, whenever the copula has a clausal argument/adjunct, the copula becomes the root, so the cop relation is not used.
It was because Bill is honest
nsubj(was, It)
mark(honest, because)
ccomp(was, honest)
nsubj(honest, Bill)
cop(honest, is)
My question is : was that really true ?
nsubj(is, question)
ccomp(is, true)
cop(true, was)
nsubj(true, that)
advmod(true, really)
This is to inform you of our decision
nsubj(is, This)
advcl(is, inform)
aux(inform, to)
dobj(inform, you)
nmod(inform, decision)
case(decision, of)
poss(decision, our)
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. Non-predicative uses of “be”–e.g., “be” when used in periphrastic verbal constructions, presentationals, or existentials–is annotated as an aux instead. of a cop.
Bill got rich
nsubj(got, Bill)
xcomp(got, rich)
Bill is speaking
nsubj(speaking, Bill)
aux(speaking, is)
Here are some bags
advmod(are, Here)
nsubj(are, bags)
det(bags, some)
There 's a cow in the field
expl('s, There)
nsubj('s, cow)
det(cow, a)
nmod('s, field)
det(field, the)
case(field, in)
Treebank Statistics (UD_English)
This relation is universal.
5608 nodes (2%) are attached to their parents as cop.
5365 instances of cop (96%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent).
Average distance between parent and child is 2.16422967189729.
The following 13 pairs of parts of speech are connected with cop: en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/VERB (2804; 50% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/VERB (1997; 36% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/VERB (286; 5% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/VERB (187; 3% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/VERB (133; 2% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/VERB (92; 2% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/VERB (35; 1% instances), en-pos/SYM-en-pos/VERB (23; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/VERB (22; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/VERB (17; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/AUX (5; 0% instances), en-pos/X-en-pos/VERB (5; 0% instances), en-pos/INTJ-en-pos/VERB (2; 0% instances).
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1 That that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 3 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No
2 's be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 cop _ _
3 right right ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No
4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _
5 folks folks NOUN UH _ 3 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No
6 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _
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1 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _
2 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _
3 on on ADP IN _ 5 case _ _
4 my my PRON PRP$ Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _
5 way way NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _
6 to to ADP IN _ 8 case _ _
7 my my PRON PRP$ Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _
8 wedding wedding NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nmod _ _
9 fearing fear VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 1 acl _ _
10 death death NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 dobj _ SpaceAfter=No
11 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _
12 basically basically ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No
13 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No
14 " " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _
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1 Here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No
2 's be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 cop _ _
3 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _
4 excerpt excerpt NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 nsubj _ _
5 from from ADP IN _ 7 case _ _
6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _
7 article article NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No
8 : : PUNCT : _ 1 punct _ _
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