[Lingtyp] Split in copulas co-occurring with nominals?

[Silvie Strauß]

Dear Abby,

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.
With adjectival and prepositional predicates, the verb /bi /(present 
tense /tha/) is used as a copula:

/Tha Emily beag/
be.PRS Emily small
'Emily is small.'

/Tha Emily anns an taigh/
be.PRS Emily in.DEF DEF house
'Emily is in the house.'

Nominal predicates, on the other hand, occur with the defective copula 
/is/, albeit in different constructions depending on definiteness, since 
with an indefinite predicate, a cleft construction is used and the 
logical subject receives the preposition /ann /'in':

/'S e oileanach a th' ann Emily/
COP 3SG.M student REL be.PRS in Emily
'Emily is a student.' (lit. 'It's a student that's in Emily.')

/Is Emily an tidsear/
COP Emily DEF teacher
'Emily is the teacher.'

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).

Best,
Silvie

05.09.2025 18:52(e)an, Abigail Roberts via Lingtyp igorleak idatzi zuen:
> Hello all,
> 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:
>
> Adjectival
> Emily e looloa, gai a Noa e bodobodo.
> Emily ipfv tall, then pn Noa ipfv short
> 'Emily is tall, but Noa is short.' (Drummond 2023:92)
>
> Prepositional
> D-ogu daina daane i lote hale.
> def-1sg.gen.o sibling male loc inside house
> 'My brother is inside the house.'
>
> However, in non-verbal sentences with two nominals, different copulas 
> are used depending on whether the sentence is predicative (generally, 
> indefinite predicates) or not.
>
> Predicative
> Ia *se *gauligi suguulu.
> 3sg cop.sg <http://cop.sg> child school
> 'S/he is a student.'
>
> Equative
> De henua naa *go *Pohnpei.
> det island med cop.foc Pohnpei
> 'That island is Pohnpei.'
>
> 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?
>
> Thank you all for your help!
>
> All the best,
> Abby Roberts
> (PhD student, UC Berkeley)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20250905/695a5212/attachment.htm>