Get to know Copula better with 10+ real example sentences, the meaning and synonyms like copulative or verb.
Copula in a sentence
Related words
Copula meaning
- A word, usually a verb, used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (usually a subject complement or an adverbial), that unites or associates the subject with the predicate.
- The bond or relationship by which two things are combined into a unity.
- A function that represents the association between two or more variables, independent of the individual marginal distributions of the variables.
Synonyms of Copula
Using Copula
- The main meaning on this page is: A word, usually a verb, used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (usually a subject complement or an adverbial), that unites or associates the subject with the predicate. | The bond or relationship by which two things are combined into a unity. | A function that represents the association between two or more variables, independent of the individual marginal distributions of the variables.
- Useful related words include: copulative, linking verb, verb.
- In the example corpus, copula often appears in combinations such as: the copula, copula is, zero copula.
Context around Copula
- Average sentence length in these examples: 21.8 words
- Position in the sentence: 7 start, 7 middle, 6 end
- Sentence types: 20 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Copula
- In this selection, "copula" usually appears near the start of the sentence. The average example has 21.8 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, zero, noun, predicate, omission, russian and language stand out and add context to how "copula" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include using the copula and a copula is often. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "copula" sits close to words such as abdicated, acme and afcfta, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with copula
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
Esperanto uses the copula much as English. (7 words)
The possibility of copula omission is mentioned under Zero copula. (10 words)
Constructed languages The constructed language Lojban has multiple sorts of copula. (11 words)
Standard English allows null copula in certain sentences; for example, the sentence “He found it (to be) difficult” does not need to include “to be” in order to sound perfectly grammatical and natural to standard English speakers. (37 words)
A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case. citation A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb. (33 words)
For example, a statement of apparently equal identification, "The silly ban on copula continues," can be made without the copula assuming an identity rather than asserting it, consequently hampering our awareness of it. (33 words)
Example sentences (20)
A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case. citation A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb.
As noted above under zero copula, Russian and other East Slavic languages generally omit the copula in the present tense.
Colloquial Khmer is a zero copula language, instead preferring predicative adjectives (and even predicative nouns) unless using a copula for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity in more complex sentences.
For example, a statement of apparently equal identification, "The silly ban on copula continues," can be made without the copula assuming an identity rather than asserting it, consequently hampering our awareness of it.
In such cases only two orders are generally found: noun-copula-predicate and, much less commonly, predicate-copula-noun.
The possibility of copula omission is mentioned under Zero copula.
Zero copula main In some languages, copula omission occurs within a particular grammatical context.
Standard English allows null copula in certain sentences; for example, the sentence “He found it (to be) difficult” does not need to include “to be” in order to sound perfectly grammatical and natural to standard English speakers.
Additional uses of copular verbs A copular verb may also have other uses supplementary to or distinct from its uses as a copula.
Another auxiliary-type usage of the copula in English is together with the to-infinitive to denote an obligatory action or expected occurrence: "I am to serve you"; "The manager is to resign".
Another copula is du, which is a verb that means all its arguments are the same thing (equal).
Aristotle further distinguished (a) terms that could be the subject of predication, and (b) terms that could be predicated of others by the use of the copula ("is a").
Both of the sentences are acceptable and grammatically correct, but sentences with the copula are more formal.
Bresnan (2001:18f.) produces and discusses examples of subject-auxiliary inversion using the copula.
Constructed languages The constructed language Lojban has multiple sorts of copula.
Esperanto uses the copula much as English.
Examples are given below (with the copula in bold and the predicative expression in italics): ::Mary and John are my friends.
For example, in both languages, the standard morphological mechanism for achieving the morphosyntactic copula is to simply execute the noun prefix syllable as murmured (or 'depressed').
Furthermore, adding "exists" to "a wise man", to give the complete sentence "a wise man exists" has the same effect as joining "some man" to "wise" using the copula.
Hence the copula must do more than merely join or separate concepts.
Common combinations with copula
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- the copula 27×
- copula is 12×
- zero copula 7×
- copula in 5×
- copula for 2×
- of copula 2×
- copula omission 2×
- as copula 2×
- another copula 2×
- copula may 2×