cop: copula
In Irish, there is a distinction between the substantive verb bí `to be’, which inflects for tense, mood and person as per all Irish verbs – and the copula is, which only has two tensed forms - present/future and past/conditional.
Bí, as a verb, uses separate particles in negative and interrogative constructions. Is (copula) uses its own forms in these constructions. For example:
- ba (conditional/ past - positive)
- ar (past/ interrogative - positive)
- nach (present/ future - interrogative/ negative)
- ní (present/ future - negative)
The order of elements in a copula construction is in general: copula, predicate (new or focussed information), and subject
cop is used to link the copula verb is and its predicate. See xcomp:pred to see how the verb bí is linked to a predicate.
Examples
equative construction
Is múinteoir é ‘He is a teacher’
Is múinteoir é \n is teacher him
cop(múinteoir, Is)
idiomatic expressions
Ba mhaith liom gan fanacht ‘I would like not to stay’
Ba mhaith liom gan fanacht \n Be good with_me without staying
cop(mhaith, Ba)
cleft constructions
Is iad a bheidh ina gcomhaltaí de na coistí sin ‘It is they who will be members of those committees’
Is iad a bheidh ina gcomhaltaí de na coistí sin \n Is they who will_be in_their members of the committees that
cop(iad,Is)
ownership constructions
An leatsa é? ‘Is it yours?’
An leatsa é ? \n Is with_you it ?
cop(leatsa, An)
Treebank Statistics (UD_Irish)
This relation is universal.
210 nodes (2%) are attached to their parents as cop.
209 instances of cop (100%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent).
Average distance between parent and child is 1.32380952380952.
The following 8 pairs of parts of speech are connected with cop: ga-pos/ADJ-ga-pos/AUX (81; 39% instances), ga-pos/NOUN-ga-pos/AUX (76; 36% instances), ga-pos/ADP-ga-pos/AUX (31; 15% instances), ga-pos/PRON-ga-pos/AUX (15; 7% instances), ga-pos/PROPN-ga-pos/AUX (3; 1% instances), ga-pos/ADV-ga-pos/AUX (2; 1% instances), ga-pos/VERB-ga-pos/AUX (1; 0% instances), ga-pos/X-ga-pos/AUX (1; 0% instances).
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1 Ar is AUX Cop Tense=Past|VerbForm=Cop 2 cop _ _
2 mhaith maith ADJ Adj Degree=Pos|Form=Len 0 root _ _
3 leat le ADP Prep Number=Sing|Person=2 2 obl:prep _ _
4 teach teach NOUN Noun Case=NomAcc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 6 obj _ _
5 a a PART Inf PartType=Inf 6 mark _ _
6 cheannach ceannach NOUN Noun Form=Len|VerbForm=Inf 2 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No
7 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _
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1 Limistéar limistéar NOUN Noun Case=NomAcc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 0 root _ _
2 na na DET Art Case=Gen|Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 3 det _ _
3 Meánmhara muir NOUN Noun Case=Gen|Definite=Def|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 1 compound _ _
4 is is AUX Cop Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Cop 5 cop _ _
5 áit áit NOUN Noun Case=NomAcc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 1 ccomp _ _
6 dúcháis dúchas NOUN Noun Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 5 compound _ _
7 don do ADP Art Number=Sing|PronType=Art 9 case _ _
8 Rós Rós PROPN Noun Case=NomAcc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 9 compound _ _
9 Mhuire Muire PROPN Noun Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing 5 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No
10 . . PUNCT . _ 1 punct _ _
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1 Is is AUX Cop Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Cop 2 cop _ _
2 ag ag ADP Simp _ 3 case _ _
3 léamh léamh NOUN Noun VerbForm=Vnoun 0 root _ _
4 an an DET Art Definite=Def|Number=Sing|PronType=Art 5 det _ _
5 nuachtáin nuachtán NOUN Noun Case=Gen|Definite=Def|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing 3 obj _ _
6 a a PART Vb PartType=Vb|PronType=Rel 7 mark:prt _ _
7 bhí bí VERB PastInd Form=Len|Mood=Ind|Tense=Past 3 csubj:cleft _ _
8 seisean seisean PRON Pers Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp 7 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No
9 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _
cop in other languages: [am] [ar] [bg] [bxr] [ca] [ckb] [cop] [cs] [cu] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [et] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fo] [fr] [ga] [gl] [got] [grc] [he] [hi] [hr] [hu] [id] [it] [ja] [kk] [kmr] [ko] [la] [lv] [mr] [nl] [no] [pl] [pt] [ro] [ru] [sa] [sk] [sla] [sl] [so] [sr] [sv] [swl] [ta] [tr] [u] [ug] [uk] [ur] [urj] [vi] [yue] [zh]