Kipin/Morphology/Copulas
Kipin Copulas
There are three copulas in Kipin, which attach to nouns or adjectives as clitics. These are the gnomic copula, the temporal copula and the inchoative copula.
Gnomic copula
The gnomic copula attaches to either nouns or adjectives and expresses permanent states.
- la
- /la/
- A, weak
- le, lo
- /le/, /lo/
- gnomic copula
- *la
Nouns marked with the gnomic copula are in the unmarked case. They may be marked for possession or deixis, or for number. Nouns and adjectives marked with this copula take the place of a verb, but do not take any verbal marking.
Temporal copula
The temporal copula attaches to nouns only and expresses a temporary state. The noun thus marked is then treated like an intransitive verb and takes appropriate marking.
- sil
- /sil/
- I, strong
- sel, swil
- /sel/, /swil/
- temporal copula
- *sil
koarsel
| koar | =sel |
| kufor | =sil |
| man | =COP |
He is a man
pyersilbir
| pyer | =sil- | bir |
| kufor | =sil- | gnur |
| man | =COP- | REC.PST |
He was a man.
Inchoative Copula
The inchoative copula attaches to either nouns or adjectives and indicates becoming.
- inti
- /inti/
- I, strong
- ente, fintwi
- /ente/, /ɸintwi/
- incohative copula
- *hinti
cepyesinti
| ce- | pyes | =inti |
| ce- | kufor | =inti |
| FUT | man | INCH |
He will become a man.
