cop: copula
A cop (copula) is the relation of a function word used to link a subject to a nonverbal predicate. The verbal copula եմ/em “to be” and its perfective counterpart լինիմ/linim “to become” are tagged AUX. Pronominal negated copula չիք/čʽikʽ (“there is no”) is tagged PRON. The cop relation should only be used for pure copulas that add at most TAME categories to the meaning of the predicate, and only when the nonverbal predicate is treated as the head of the clause. In Classical Armenian, the auxiliary եմ has a defective paradigm and the auxiliary լինիմ is used instead for perfective predicates. Given that the Aspect is a productive grammatical category, the two auxiliaries are considered as complementary copulas.
Եւ էին (եմ) արդարք երկոքին առաջի Աստուծոյ. ։ \n They were both righteous in the sight of God. .
cop(արդարք, էին)
cop(righteous, were)
Որպէս աւանդեցին մեզ որ ի սկզբանէ ականատեսք եւ սպասաւորք եղեն (լինիմ) բանի ն : \n Just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word .
cop(ականատեսք, եղեն)
cop(eyewitnesses, were)
The negated copula represents a grammaticalized combination of a negative particle չ=/čʽ= and an indefinite pronoun իք/ikʽ “anything”.
չիք ինչ ծածուկ . որ ոչ յայտ լիցի \n nothing is concealed that will not become evident
cop(ինչ, չիք)
cop(nothing, is)
References
Jensen, Hans. 1959. Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.
Klein, Jared. 2017. The syntax of Armenian. In: J. Klein et al. (eds.), Handbook of comparative and historical Indo-European linguistics. Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter: 1097‒1115.
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] [xcl] [yue] [zh]