(Udmurt)
AdjCopDep
AdjCopDep: Depending on certain grammatical circumstances, the copula does occur with adjectival predicates.
| (1) | so | udmurt. |
|---|
| (s)he | Udmurt |
| ’(S)he is Udmurt.’ (Winkler 2001: 65) |
| (2) | ton | aźtem. |
|---|
| you | lazy |
| ’You are lazy.’ (Y. S.) |
| (3) | ton | köj | övöl. |
|---|
| you | fat | COP.NEG |
| ’You are not fat.’ (Asztalos 2018: 9) |
| (4) | nazar-len | śinm-yz | no | naćar | val. |
|---|
| Nazar‑GEN | eye‑3SG | also | weak | COP.PST |
| ’Nazar’s eyes were also weak.’ (Csúcs 1990: 62) |
| (5) | mynam | śuan-e | lu-o-z | udmurt. |
|---|
| I.GEN | wedding‑1SG | COP‑FUT‑3SG | Udmurt |
| ’I will have an Udmurt wedding.’ (AnnushkaZagumennova 09.02.2014) |
| (6) | kud-og | udmurt | kńiga-os-ja | umoj | luy-sal | kino | leśty-ny. |
|---|
| some | Udmurt | book‑PL‑ADV | good | COP‑COND | film | make‑INF |
| ’It would be nice to make film adaptations of some Udmurt books.’ (Udmurt corpus) |
| (7) | kylśaryś, | sońi, | kenon, | ńikon | fotoapparat-jos | ma-jin | ke |
|---|
| for_example | Sony | Canon | Nikon | camera‑PL | what‑INSCOM | PCL |
| no | pörtem | lu-o. | | | | |
| also | different | COP‑3PL | | | | |
| ’For example Sony, Canon and Nikon cameras are also different (differ in something).’ (Marajko 24.09.2014) |
In Udmurt, there is usually no copula co-occurring with an adjectival predicate in any person and number in non-negative present tense clauses in indicative mood (1)–(2) (Csúcs 1990: 62, Winkler 2001: 65). The copula (which also functions as an existential verb) does appear in negative sentences (3), in tenses different from the present (4)–(5) and in non-indicative mood (6) (ibid).
Under certain – hitherto poorly understood – conditions the copula can also appear in non-negative present tense sentences in indicative mood (7).
Author: Erika Asztalos
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