the versatility of "be"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

scene: dining room of the Stanford Humanities Center, at lunch time.
director arrives with a stanford english dept. professor he's
bringing to lunch.  visitor spies a department colleague of hers.

visitor, to colleague: What brings you here?

colleague: I *am* here!

[meaning, of course, that he is not merely present in the SHC at the
moment, but is here in a more long-range sense -- as a 2005-06
Fellow, in fact]

arnold