Zero copula? |
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Zero copula is a linguistic phenomenon whereby the presence of the copula is assumed, rather than stated explicitly as a verb. Russian, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Arabic exhibit this phenomenon as a formal grammatical process. It is also found, to a lesser extent, in English, Japanese, and many other languages, used most frequently in rhetoric and casual speech.
Omission frequently depends on the tense and use of the copula. For example, in Russian the copula byt is normally omitted in the present tense, but not in the past tense:
- Ona v dome. = She is in the house, literally She in house
- Ona byla v dome. = She was in the house, literally She was in house
The present tense of the copula in Russian was in common use well into the 19th Century (as attested in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky), but is used now only for archaic effect.
Further restrictions may apply before omission is permitted. For example in the Irish language, is the present tense of the copula may be omitted if the predicate is a noun. Ba the past/conditional cannot be deleted. If the present copula is omitted, the following pronoun é, í, iad preceding the noun is omitted as well.
Standard English exhibits a very limited form of the zero copula, most common in statements like "The higher, the better", and casual questions like "You from out of town?" However, the zero copula is not used productively in standard English.
The zero copula is far more productive in African American Vernacular English, some varieties of which regularly omit the copula. For instance, "You crazy!" or "She my sister". It is also found in questions, for example "Where you at?" and "Who she?" As in Russian, this is the case only in the present tense. In past-tense sentences, the copula must be specified. Although these speech patterns have not, as yet, had a significant effect on mainstream English, they are interesting for historical linguists, as they may predict future developments in English grammar.
The zero copula is also present, in a slightly different and more regular form, in the headlines of English newspapers, where short words and articles are generally omitted to conserve space. For example, a headline would more likely say "Gulf coast in ruins" than "Gulf coast is in ruins". Because headlines are generally simple A = B statements, an explicit copula is rarely necessary.
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