Copula

In linguistics, a copula (also called a linking verb) is a word that is used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate. Though it might not itself express any action or condition, it serves to associate the subject with a predicate that could not stand by itself. For example, in the sentence "Bob runs", the predicate "run" is already a verb, so it can be used by itself. In the sentences "Bob is old" and "Bob is a fireman", however, the predicates are an adjective and a noun, so the linking verb "is" (a form of be, the usual copula in English) serves to associate them with Bob. In English, even the normal present tense of verbs is expressed more commonly with the copulative form "Bob is running", while other tenses are expressed without it ("Bob ran"), or with the use of other helper verbs ("Bob will run").

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: ö 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 está aquí"). The Italian language does it the same way ("Roberto è vecchio"/"Roberto sta qui"), and Hungarian? only uses a copula in the latter case with regard to 3rd person (sg/pl) (Róbert van itt"), but not in the 1st example ("Róbert öreg"). This is to relate a subject to a more temporary condition/state taking place in *space* (very often in the sense of Lojban "zvati").

It should be pointed out that the English verb be can also be used as a standalone predicate when it is used to express mere existence. "I am" is a complete sentence meaning "I exist", and in this case "am" is not a copula but a normal, meaningful verb.

/Talk?