copula

Lady arachnids have a well-deserved reputation for polishing off their suitors, post copula, in a manner that Hannibal Lecter might have admired.

We may, indeed, say, ½a friendship has long existed between them,¸ instead of saying, ½there has long been a friendship between them;¸ but in this case, exist is not a mere copula.

We say ‘murder is death to the perpetrator’ where the copula is brings; ‘two and two are four,’ the copula being ‘have the value of,’ etc.”

These propositions, as will be seen, are not cast in what the logician calls logical form, with regular terms and copula.

By means of this representation, and the peculiar nature of the attribute, the verb is distinguished from the mere logical copula, with which it is liable to be confounded if these ideas are not understood.