<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Dear Abby,<div><br></div><div> An early article on different copulas for predicational (nominal) and identificational sentences is:</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Kuno, Susumu and Preya Wogkomthong. 1981. Characterizational and identificational sentences in Thai. <i>Studies in Language</i> 5.65-109.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br></p></div><div> The most comprehensive source that I know of for variation in the encoding of nominal, adjectival and locational predication, with some discussion of identificational sentences, including different types of copulas and different split encodings (where two different strategies, including copulas of different types or sources are used for one of the predication types), and synchronic and diachronic universals governing the typological variation, is:</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Stassen, Leon. 1997. <i>Intransitive predication</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div>Bill<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Sep 5, 2025, at 12:45 PM, Silvie Strauß via Lingtyp <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>
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<div>
Dear Abby,<br>
<br>
That looks actually a lot like Scottish Gaelic, which also has a
three-way split between 1. adjectival and prepositional predicates,
2. definite nominal predicates and 3. indefinite nominal predicates.
<br>
With adjectival and prepositional predicates, the verb <i>bi </i>(present
tense <i>tha</i>) is used as a copula: <br>
<br>
<i>Tha Emily beag</i><br>
be.PRS Emily small<br>
'Emily is small.'<br>
<br>
<i>Tha Emily anns an taigh</i><br>
be.PRS Emily in.DEF DEF house<br>
'Emily is in the house.'<br>
<br>
Nominal predicates, on the other hand, occur with the defective
copula <i>is</i>, albeit in different constructions depending on
definiteness, since with an indefinite predicate, a cleft
construction is used and the logical subject receives the
preposition <i>ann </i>'in':<br>
<br>
<i>'S e oileanach a th' ann Emily</i><br>
COP 3SG.M student REL be.PRS in Emily<br>
'Emily is a student.' (lit. 'It's a student that's in Emily.')<br>
<br>
<i>Is Emily an tidsear</i><br>
COP Emily DEF teacher<br>
'Emily is the teacher.'<br>
<br>
So maybe not exactly what you are looking for strategiewise since
Scottish Gaelic doesn't use different copulas for definite and
indefinite nominal predicates, but it does make the same
distinction(s).<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Silvie<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">05.09.2025 18:52(e)an, Abigail Roberts
via Lingtyp igorleak idatzi zuen:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CAKUkHw_cHZ5ZpnDF8Qtd0XnHXUmb-zULEDo4A0UXonzbF5kUHQ@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Hello all,<br>
<div>I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any languages with a
particular distribution of copulas. I'm researching non-verbal
clauses in Nukuoro, a Polynesian Outlier language spoken in
Micronesia. In Nukuoro, only non-verbal sentences with two
nominals (i.e., predicative clauses with nominal predicates
and equative and identificational clauses) include copulas.
Sentences with prepositional or adjectival predicates do not:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Adjectival</div>
<div>Emily e looloa, gai a Noa e bodobodo. </div>
<div>Emily ipfv tall, then pn Noa ipfv short<br>
'Emily is tall, but Noa is short.' (Drummond 2023:92)<br>
<br>
Prepositional<br>
D-ogu daina daane i lote hale. <br>
def-1sg.gen.o sibling male loc inside house<br>
'My brother is inside the house.'</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>However, in non-verbal sentences with two nominals,
different copulas are used depending on whether the sentence
is predicative (generally, indefinite predicates) or not.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Predicative</div>
<div>Ia <b>se </b>gauligi suguulu.<br>
3sg <a href="http://cop.sg/" moz-do-not-send="true">cop.sg</a>
child school<br>
'S/he is a student.' </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Equative</div>
<div>De henua naa <b>go </b>Pohnpei.<br>
det island med cop.foc Pohnpei<br>
'That island is Pohnpei.'</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Does anyone know of a language with a similar pattern of
copularization- one copula for indefinite nominal
predicates/predicative clauses and one for definite or
referential nominals? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thank you all for your help!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>All the best,</div>
<div>Abby Roberts</div>
<div>(PhD student, UC Berkeley)</div>
</div>
<br>
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