Copula

:This is not about copula functions in probability and statistics. See copula (statistics).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The word copula originates from the Latin noun for a "link or tie" that connects two different things. In linguistics, a copula is a word that is used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a subject complement or an adverbial). Though it might not itself express any action or condition, it serves to equate (or associate) the subject with the predicate.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A copula is sometimes (though not always) a verb or a verb-like part of speech. In English primary education grammar courses it is often called a linking verb.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The term is generally used to refer to the main copular verb in the language: in the case of English, this is "to be". It can also be used to refer to all such verbs in the language: in that case, English copulas include, "to be", "to become", "to get", "to feel", and "to seem". Fall can be a copulative verb, as in "The zebra fell victim to the lion." See: List of English copulas.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Latin: Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The ...

Noun: A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. Nouns are parts of speech and can be classified in different ways such as proper nouns (e.g. "Janet") versus common nouns (e.g. "girl"), or collective nouns (e.g. "bunch", "herd"). N...

Linguistics: Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. (Lay people sometimes use the term linguistician, but as Aitchison 2003 points out, this is "too much of a tongue-twister to become generally accepted.")...