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

[William Croft]

Dear Abby,

    An early article on different copulas for predicational (nominal) and identificational sentences is:

Kuno, Susumu and Preya Wogkomthong. 1981. Characterizational and identificational sentences in Thai. Studies in Language 5.65-109.

    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:

Stassen, Leon. 1997. Intransitive predication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Best wishes,
Bill

> On Sep 5, 2025, at 12:45 PM, Silvie Strauß via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:
> 
> 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)
>> 
>> 
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