copula

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In one episode the shirtless tribal leader Khal Drogo delivered a monologue for two and a half minutes in Dothraki, with its subject-verb-object structure and no copula, or linking verb.

From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2011

It is apt to be supposed that the copula is something more than a mere sign of predication; that it also signifies existence.

From A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive by Mill, John Stuart

In such a case as this, the verb expresses predication and nothing else, and is called a copula.

From Hume (English Men of Letters Series) by Huxley, Thomas Henry

The first division of propositions is into Affirmative and Negative, the copula in the latter being is not.

From Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic by Stebbing, W. (William)

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.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison