Meanings
Predicates formed using a copula may express identity – that the two noun phrases (subject and complement) have the same referent or express an identical concept:
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- I only want to be myself.
- The Morning Star is the Evening Star.
They may also express membership of a class, or a subset relationship:
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- She was a nurse.
- Dogs are carnivorous mammals.
Similarly they may express some property, relation or position, whether permanent or temporary:
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- The trees are green.
- I am your boss.
- The hen is next to the cockerel.
- The children are confused.
Other special uses of copular verbs are described in some of the following sections.
Read more about this topic: Copula (linguistics)
Famous quotes containing the word meanings:
“Our mother gives us our earliest lessons in love—and its partner, hate. Our father—our “second other”Melaborates on them. Offering us an alternative to the mother-baby relationship . . . presenting a masculine model which can supplement and contrast with the feminine. And providing us with further and perhaps quite different meanings of lovable and loving and being loved.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
“Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Well, “slithy” means “lithe and slimy.” “Lithe” is the same as “active.” You see, it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)