copula

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In one episode the shirtless tribal leader Khal Drogo delivered a monologue for two and a half minutes in Dothraki, with its subject-verb-object structure and no copula, or linking verb.

From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2011

The logicians will not see that their formal proposition, "Every X is Y," is material in three points, the degree of assertion, the quantity of the proposition, and the copula.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I by Smith, David Eugene

But since the former can be conceived only after the manner of the latter, the appropriateness of using the verb which expresses existence or reality, as the logical copula, will be at once apparent.

From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Coffey, Peter

Some logicians, among whom may be mentioned Hobbes, state this distinction differently; they recognize only one form of copula, is, and attach the negative sign to the predicate.

From A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive by Mill, John Stuart

In such a case as this, the verb expresses predication and nothing else, and is called a copula.

From Hume (English Men of Letters Series) by Huxley, Thomas Henry