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The Copula & Subject-Verb Agreement Part 1 ENGLISH 5050: English Syntax and Morphology All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from Chapter 4 of The Grammar Book, 2nd edition. Robert F. van Trieste, Ph.D.

Be Functions Copula “. . . links nonverbal predicates (i.e., nouns, adjectives, and certain adverbials) with their subjects . . .” a teacher John is tall in Boston Auxiliary progressive aspect John is surfing. passive voice John was hired. some phrasal modals John is able to work and study. John is going to sing for us. John is supposed to leave tonight.

Types of Copulas (linking verbs) Be “the semantically most neutral copula” (semantically empty) “the grammatically most flexible copular verb” “can be followed . . . by adjective phrases . . . noun phrases and adverbial prepositional phrases.” “Most of the other copular verbs can be followed only by adjective phrases . . .” Perception They (appear, seem, feel, look, smell, sound, taste) funny. State They (lie, remain, rest, stand) protected. Change-of-state They (become, come, fall, get, go, grow, run, turn) (tall, true, ill, wild).

Be versus All other copular verbs: 1 “Copular verbs other than be take a do auxiliary in questions and negatives.” The copula be functions as an operator in questions and negatives. Therefore, it does not take the auxiliary do.

Be versus All other lexical verbs: 2 Form

Be versus All other lexical verbs: 3 Syntax Be “behaves like an auxiliary verb and has operator function with regard to question formation, negation and other constructions.” Be “is very different from . . . other verbs like walk, which require the addition of a do auxiliary as the operator if no other auxiliary verb is present.”

Subject-Verb Agreement Except for be, this only occurs in present tense with third person singular. “If the predicate of the sentence begins with an inflectable, tense-bearing auxiliary verb . . ., it is the auxiliary verb that indicates the third person singular inflection (not the main [lexical] verb).” “The number MORE THAN ONE can be encoded either lexically (e.g., people, they) or, more typically, morphologically with the inflection -s (e.g., several boys). In some cases, lexical and morphological number can even co-occur and give new meaning to words (e.g., peoples).

Present tense verb endings -s (ONE) The boy runs. - ø (MORE THAN ONE) The boys run.

Rules: 1 Collective nouns “take either a singular or plural verb inflection depending on the meaning.” The committee has finished its work. (whole) The committee have finished their work. (individuals) Some nouns ending in –s “take a singular verb inflection.” No news is good news. This series is very interesting. Titles of books, plays, films, etc. “take the singular verb inflection” Great Expectations was written by Dickens.”

End of part 1