Senu Yivokuchi

Grammar \ Copulas

Copulas are particles that join nouns or noun phrases, or noun phrases with adjectives. Senu Yivokuchi has three: the essive copula (roughly equivalent to the verb "to be") and the two inceptive copulas. All of them tend to occupy the sentence-final position, except for emphasis, and are usually enclitic (i. e. they attach themselves, or "cliticize", to the previous word).

Copulas are not a different kind of verbs. Their syntax is different and they have a different inflection paradigm. They can be negated and used imperatively, though, using the same affixes as verbs for these purposes.

The essive copula de

The essive copula (from Latin esse "to be") is used to join a noun phrase and a predicate, i. e. another noun phrase or an adjective. This copula is expressed by the word de. The meanings are varied, but usually the essive copula implies equality, identity or qualification. For example:

Furka Meri de.
"Mary is scared."

Oinech dadamade.
"The Earth is round."

Aidade.
"He's in love."

Pirvacitade eki wo.
"This woman is an expert."

Ka treli alde.
"He's not the proper one."

Aida gon alde.
"She doesn't love him."

Okeo dide!
"Listen!"

The essive copula used to have no inflection, but it employed the verb so 'come' as an auxilliary to which tense, aspect and mood (TAM) information was attached, much like English uses forms of do. The auxilliary later fused with the copula, giving the following forms: present perfect zie, past zu, past perfect zou, suspensive zim. The copula also has an absolute form, dae (which mimics the deverbal absolute participle of verbs).

The essive copula is extensively used in Senu Yivokuchi, even to express concepts left to verbs in other languages, due to the fact that the language only uses verbs for dynamic, volitional actions, as well as actions that affect the patient physically. There are exceptions, of course, but feelings like "love" or passive (even if volitional) states like "listening" are all expressed by adjectives, which take the copula. Hence the last examples above, where e. g. Okeo dide actually means "Be listening!".

The essive copula has an 'intentive' form that parallels the -dr- form of verb participles. It represents intent or purpose of the designated state, and has only one form, dre.

Ghaega aldre gojo!
"(It) was not meant to be a bother to you!"

Zuoyu kuardre.
"(It) was planted so as to stand firm/still."

The "seemingly" affix

The essive copula (in any of its forms) can be added an affix, -ka, which for lack of a better term we might call the "seemingly" mark. This affix transforms the meaning of the copula, adding an idea of appearance, roughly like the verb "seem" in English.

Kekindeka.
"It seems likely."

Lili wimazuka mun ye.
"They looked (too) young to me."

In colloquial use, this affix may be appended to the inceptive copulas and to verbs as well, though this is considered uneducated.

The inceptive copulas mo and komo

The essive copula is, in a sense, static. It shows a state that may include change, but that is fixed in itself. The inceptive copula mo, in contrast, shows a change of state. Like de, it is cliticized after the end of words. The word to which it attaches is the one that expresses the final state.

Riki leamo!
"The day's turning black!"

Aka mibamo Sara.
"Sarah has become a beautiful woman."

The inceptive copula has an absolute form mao, and two suspensive forms, morim (basic) and morenim (based on an active participle). See the Verbs section for the explanation of these forms. These are rather interchangeable for the inceptive copula, except for minor changes in the case structure of the phrase.

There is also a causative form of this copula, komo. This copula expresses the concept of causing something to become something else. The original state (the object of the transformation) is demoted to the position of an oblique complement, and marked with the genitive case.

Eni khaskomo yiwudi.
"The river has widened the valley."

Kekinkomo jo.
"You made it possible."

Git wo yifecek ghakodakomo.
"This machine turns ice into gold."

The inceptive and the causative copulas can be used to show a spatial movement, in the same way as the essive one can be used to express a spatial location. Thus one can even say (using the temporal demonstratives ve, vewo):

Vewomo e.
"Here I come."

Ye vekomo jo?
"Where are you taking me?"

The absolute form of the causative copula is kaomao. The suspensive forms are komokim (basic), kokenim (active), kokiyam (passive).

Perfect aspect

The essive copula has no perfect aspect. The inceptive copulas show perfect tenses using a paraphrase, with the help of the auxilliary so (which is a bit irregular). The auxilliary carries the TAM information. The copula may follow or precede the conjugated auxilliary. When the subject is a pronoun, it is usually 'echoed' to emphasize the serial construction auxiliary + copula.

E sise e fimo yivini.
e  s  -is -e   e  fi    -mo  yi- vin  -i
1s AUX-PRF-PRS 1s seeing-INC GEN-light-DEF
"I have seen the light."

Ye vekomo sise jo?
Ye ve   =komo s  -is -e   jo?
1s where=CAU  AUX-PRF-PRS 2s
"Where have you brought me?"

Summary of copulas

Legend = PReSent, PaST, PeRFect, ABSolute,
         SUSpensive, ACtive Pple, PAssive Pple


1. Essive copula

    PRS de    +PRF zie
    PST zu    +PRF zou
    ABS dae
    SUS zim


2. Inceptive copula

    PRS mo     +PRF mo sise
    PST mo su  +PRF mo sosu
    ABS mao
    SUS morim  +ACP morenim


3. Causative-inceptive copula

    PRS komo     +PRF komo sise
    PST komo su  +PRF komo sosu
    ABS kaomao
    SUS komokim  +ACP kokenim   +PAP kokiyam