Use of copula with nominal predicate (Hungarian)

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


(1) én nyelvész vagy-ok.

I linguist cop-prs.1sg

‘I’m a linguist.’


(2) szilvi nyelvész.

Szilvi linguist

‘Szilvi is a linguist.’


(3) én nyelvész vol-t-am.

I linguist cop-pst-1sg

‘I was a linguist.’


In Hungarian, nominal predicate constructions with third person subjects in the present tense take zero copulas, otherwise copulas do occur (cf. Kenesei et al. 1998: 58‒64, Lengyel 2000b).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás