Use of copula with adjectival predicate (Hungarian)

AdjCopDep: Depending on certain grammatical circumstances, the copula does occur with nominal predicates.


(1) én boldog vagy-ok

I happy cop-prs.1sg

‘I’m happy.’


(2) a gyerek boldog.

the child happy

‘The child is happy.’


(3) a gyerek boldog vol-t.

the child happy cop-pst.3sg

‘The child was happy.’


In Hungarian, adjectival predicates in the third person do not entail the copula in the present tense. In other adverbial predicate constructions, the copula is present (cf. Kenesei et al. 1998: 58‒64, Lengyel 2000b).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás