A clause or simple sentence typically consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject is who or what the sentence is about and the predicate is what the sentence is asserting about the subject. We will learn more about subjects in Section 7.2.

In the sentences in (1), the subject is underlined and the predicate is in bold.

The word predicate can be used in two main ways. Sometimes it can refer to just the head of the predicate (usually a verb), or it can refer to the whole phrase. In (1), the whole phrases are bolded.

Although most predicates are verbs, such as ride in (1a) and like in (1b), there are also non-verbal predicates. Non-verbal predicates include adjectival predicates, as in (1c), prepositional predicates, as in (1d), or nominal predicates, as in (1e). In English, non-verbal predicates always appear with the verb BE, which is known as the copula. The copula does the grammatical job of bearing tense and agreement marking, since adjectives, prepositions, and nouns can’t. Although there are multiple kinds of copular constructions with slightly different meanings, you can think of the copula roughly as an equal sign, indicating that the subject has the property denoted by the non-verbal predicate.

Although in English non-verbal predicates always have a copula, some other languages have what is known as a zero copula. In these languages, there may be no verb at all when there is a non-verbal predicate. Some examples of nominal predicates with zero copula from Sinhalese (Indo-European language family, spoken in Sri Lanka), Tubu (Saharan language family, spoken in Niger and Chad), and Pitjantjatjara (Pama-Nyungan family, spoken in Australia) are shown below.

(2) a. Sinhalese

(Gair 1970: 145, as cited in Stassen 2013)

b. Tubu

(Lukas 1953: 170, as cited in Stassen 2013)

c. Pitjantjatjara

(Doughlas 1959: 55, as cited in Stassen 2013)

Some other languages have zero copula sometimes but an overt copula in other contexts. For example, Maltese, an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Malta, has a zero copula in the present tense and an overt copula in the past tense.

(3) Maltese

(Stassen 2013)

According to WALS, just over half of the world’s languages always use an overt copula (Stassen 2013).

Check yourself!

References and further resources

Academic sources

Stassen, Leon. 2013. Zero copula for predicate nominals. In World Atlas of Language Structures Online, ed. Matthew Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. https://wals.info/chapter/120