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Some languages use copulas differently, so a sentence like "Bob old" would be a complete and grammatical expression (e.g. in Chinese "bobu lao" ըB, where "lao3" is a so-called "status verb" meaning "being old"), while they might still use a copula to associate one noun with another as in the "fireman" example (in modern Chinese, here the copula "shi" O is necessary). There are still many other languages e.g. Russian or Hungarian? where nouns don't have a copula between them (Russian: "ja chelovek" - I'm a man/human -, Hungarian: " ember" - he is a man/human). The artificial language Lojban has no copula at all, because all words that express a predicate can be used as verbs. The three sentences above would all have the same form in Lojban: "la bob. bajra", "la bob. tolcitno", and "la bob. fagdirpre". Some languages also have more than one copula for different uses; for example the Spanish language uses the verb "ser" to link a subject to a predicate that specifies an identity or inherent quality ("Bob is old" would be "Bob es viejo"), and the verb "estar" to link predicates that specify a temporary condition ("Bob is here" would be "Bob est aqu"). The Italian language does it the same way ("Roberto vecchio"/"Roberto sta qui"), and Hungarian? only uses a copula in the latter case with regard to 3rd person (sg/pl) (Rbert van itt"), but not in the 1st example ("Rbert reg"). This is to relate a subject to a more temporary condition/state taking place in *space* (very often in the sense of Lojban "zvati"). |
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Some languages use copulas differently, so a sentence like "Bob old" would be a complete and grammatical expression (e.g. in Chinese "Bobu lao", where "lao3" is a so-called "status verb" meaning "being old"), while they might still use a copula to associate one noun with another as in the "fireman" example (in modern(!) Chinese, here the copula "shi3" is necessary). There are still many other languages e.g. Russian or Hungarian? where nouns don't have a copula between them (Russian: "ja chelovek" - I'm a man/human -, Hungarian: ember" - he is a man/human). The artificial language Lojban has no copula at all, because all words that express a predicate can be used as verbs. The three sentences above would all have the same form in Lojban: "la bob. bajra", "la bob. tolcitno", and "la bob. fagdirpre". Some languages also have more than one copula for different uses; for example the Spanish language uses the verb "ser" to link a subject to a predicate that specifies an identity or inherent quality ("Bob is old" would be "Bob es viejo"), and the verb "estar" to link predicates that specify a temporary condition ("Bob is here" would be "Bob est aqu"). The Italian language does it the same way ("Roberto vecchio"/"Roberto sta qui"), and Hungarian? only uses a copula in the latter case with regard to 3rd person (sg/pl) (Rbert van itt"), but not in the 1st example ("Rbert reg"). This is to relate a subject to a more temporary condition/state taking place in *space* (very often in the sense of Lojban "zvati"). |
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