cop: copula
A cop is the relation between the nominal predicate and the copulas a (present) and i (non-present). The verbs hâ “be present” and ǀkhai “be absent”, despite often being counted among copular verbs, are not analyzed as cop for the purposes of UD. The main reasoning is that they function as regular verbs in a clause: they are usualy located in the clause-final position.
Copulas are treated as dependents of the nominal predicate (a noun or an adjective)
Amob ge a gaxu ao . \n Amos DECL is tall man .
cop(ao, a)
cop(man, is)
Amob ge a gaxu . \n Amos DECL is tall .
cop(gaxu, a)
cop(tall, is)
Present copula a may be omitted.
Amob ge gaxu ao . \n Amos DECL tall man .
nsubj(ao, Amob)
aux(ao, ge)
amod(ao, gaxu)
nsubj(man, Amos)
aux(man, DECL)
amod(man, tall)
If the copula is accompanied by other auxiliaries for tense, aspect, etc., then they are also given a flat structure, and taken as dependents of the lexical predicate:
Amob ge ge gaxu i . \n Amos DECL PST tall was .
cop(gaxu, i)
aux(gaxu, ge-3)
cop(tall, was)
aux(tall, PST)
Note that particles a and i are also used in other constructions, for example, with stative verbs.
Amob ge a mâ . \n Amos DECL STAT.PRS stand .
aux(mâ, a)
aux(stand, STAT.PRS)
For non-verbal locational and existential predication, the verbs hâ “be present” or ǀkhai “be absent” are used.
ǀGôan ge skol-i ai hâ . \n Children DECL school at be_present .
nsubj(hâ, ǀGôan)
obl(hâ, skol-i)
nsubj(be_present, Children)
obl(be_present, school)
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] [naq] [no] [pcm] [pt] [ro] [ru] [sl] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [urj] [vi] [xcl] [yue] [zh]