In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae) is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a subject complement). The word copula derives from the Latin noun for a link or tie that connects two different things.^[1]

A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case.^[2] A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb. In English primary education grammar courses, a copula is often called a linking verb. Other copulas show more resemblances to pronouns. This is the case for Classical Chinese and Guarani, for instance. In highly synthetic languages, copulas are often suffixes, attached to a noun, that may still behave otherwise like ordinary verbs, for example -u- in Inuit languages. In some other languages, such as Beja and Ket, the copula takes the form of suffixes that attach to a noun but are distinct from the person agreement markers used on predicative verbs.^[3] This phenomenon is known as nonverbal person agreement or nonverbal subject agreement and the relevant markers are always established as deriving from cliticised independent pronouns.

In general, the term copula is used to refer to the main copular verb(s) in a language. In the case of English, this is the verb to be. The term can also be used to refer to some other verbs in the language that fulfill similar functions. Other English copulas include to become, to get, to feel, and to seem. Other verbs can have secondary uses as copulative verbs. In the following example, the past tense of the verb to fall is used as a copula: "The zebra fell victim to the lion." These extra copulas are sometimes called "semi-copulas" or "pseudo-copulas".

Most languages have one main copula, but some languages, like Spanish and Thai, have more than one, and some have none.

English[link]

Copulas have multiple uses.

Use[link]

Several uses of the copula can be categorized:

• Identity: "I only want to be myself." "When the area behind the dam fills, it will be a lake." "The Morning Star is the Evening Star." "Boys will be boys."

• Class membership. To belong to a set or class: "She could be a nurse." "Dogs are canines." "Moscow is a large city." Depending on one's point of view, all other uses can be considered derivatives of this use, including the following non-copular uses in English, as they all express a subset relationship.

• Predication (property and relation attribution): "It hurts to be blue." "Will that house be big enough?" "The hen is next to the cockerel." "I am confused." Such attributes may also relate to temporary conditions as well as inherent qualities: "I will be tired after running." "Will you be going to the play tomorrow?" but please note that a linking verb has nothing to do with these so called "Be"- verbs (see below).

Non-copular uses[link]

• The verb that often is used as a copula can also be used as an auxiliary verb:
  • To form the passive voice: "I was told that you wanted to see me"
  • To form progressive tenses in English: "It is raining"
• "To be" also has a non-copular use meaning "to exist" (existential verb): "I want only to be, and that is enough." "To be or not to be, that is the question." "I think therefore I am."

The auxiliary verb function derives from the copular function; and, depending on one's point of view, one can still interpret the verb as a copula and the following verbal form as being adjectival. Abelard in his Dialectica made an argument against the idea that the copula can express existence based on a reductio ad absurdum.^[4]

Copula omission[link]

In informal speech of English, the copula may be dropped. This is a feature of African American Vernacular English but is also used by a variety of English speakers in informal contexts.^[5] An example: "Where you at? We at the store."

Double copula[link]

The double copula is the use of two successive copulas when only one is necessary, as in My point is, is that.... Use of the double copula is one of the disputes in English grammar.

Conjugation[link]

As in most Indo-European languages, the English copula is the most irregular verb because of constant use. Most English verbs (traditionally known as "weak verbs") have just four separate forms, e.g., "start", "starts", "starting", "started". A sizable minority (traditionally known as "strong verbs") have five separate forms, e.g., "begin", "begins", "beginning", "began", "begun". "To be" is a very special case in having eight forms: "be", "am", "is", "are", "being", "was", "were", "been". At one time, it had even more, including "art", "wast", "wert", and, on occasion, "beest" as a subjunctive.

Subset relator[link]

From one perspective, the copula always relates two things as subsets. Take the following examples:

1. John is a doctor.
2. John and Mary are doctors.
3. Doctors are educated.
4. Mary is running.
5. Running is fun.

Example 1 includes John in the set of all doctors. Example 2 includes John and Mary both in the set of all doctors. Example 3 includes the set of doctors in the set of those who are educated.

Example 4 is different. Example 4 includes Mary's state at the time of utterance in the set of states consistent with running. Example 5 then includes the set of states consistent with running in the set of states consistent with fun.

Distinguishing between a copula and an action verb[link]

A copula and an action verb can generally be differentiated by trying to substitute the verb with a form of "to seem" or "to be".

• Example of an Action Verb: Sam looks at lettuce. Sam seems at lettuce? Sam is at lettuce? The latter two don't make sense, so "looks" in this case is being used as an action verb.

• Example of a Copula: Sam looks happy. Sam seems happy? Sam is happy? The latter two make sense; "looks" is used as a copula in this case.

Note that this approach falters, in part, with the verb "to appear". In the sentence "Sam appears to be happy", "appears" is a copula. Yet, "seems" but not "is" can be substituted: "Sam is to be happy" means something else entirely.

Copulas in other languages[link]

In Indo-European languages, the words meaning "to be" often sound similar to each other. Due to the high frequency of their use, their inflection retains a considerable degree of similarity in some cases. Thus, for example, the English form is is an apparent cognate of German ist, Latin est and Russian jest', even though the Germanic, Italic, and Slavic language groups split at least three thousand years ago. The origins of the Indo-European copulae can be traced back to four different stems *es- (*h₁es-), *sta- (*steh₂-), *wes- and *bhu- (*bʰuH-) in most Indo-European languages.

Georgian and German[link]

As in English, the verb "to be" (qopna) is irregular in Georgian (a Kartvelian language); different verb roots are employed in different tenses. The roots -ar-, -kn-, -qav-, and -qop- (past participle) are used in the present tense, future tense, past tense and the perfective tenses respectively. Examples:

Masc'avlebeli var.	"I am a teacher."
Masc'avlebeli viknebi.	"I will be a teacher."
Masc'avlebeli viqavi.	"I was a teacher."
Masc'avlebeli vqopilvar.	"I have been a teacher."
Masc'avlebeli vqopiliqavi.	"I had been a teacher."

Note that, in the last two examples (perfect and pluperfect), two roots are used in one verb compound. In the perfective tense, the root qop (which is the expected root for the perfective tense) is followed by the root ar, which is the root for the present tense. In the pluperfective tense, again, the root qop is followed by the past tense root qav. This formation is very similar to German (an Indo-European language), where the perfect and the pluperfect are expressed in the following way:

Ich bin Lehrer gewesen.	"I have been a teacher", literally "I am teacher been."
Ich war Lehrer gewesen.	"I had been a teacher", literally "I was teacher been."

Here, gewesen is the past participle of sein ("to be") in German. In both examples, as in Georgian, this participle is used together with the present and the past forms of the verb in order to conjugate for the perfect and the pluperfect aspects.

Zero copula (Semitic languages, Quechuan languages, Hungarian, Russian, Ancient Greek)[link]

In some languages, copula omission occurs within a particular grammatical context. For example, speakers of Russian, Hungarian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Quechuan languages consistently drop the copula in present tense: Russian: я — человек, ya — chelovek "I (am) a person"; Hungarian: ő ember, "s/he (is) a human"; Arabic: أنا إنسان ʔanā ʔinsān, "I am human"; Hebrew: אני אדם, "I (am a) human"; Southern Quechua: payqa runam "s/he (is) a human". This usage is known generically as the zero copula. Note that in other tenses (sometimes in other persons besides third singular) the copula usually reappears.

In Ancient Greek, when an adjective precedes a noun with an article, the copula is understood. Thus, ὁ οἴκος ἐστὶ μακρός, "the house is large," can be written μακρός ὁ οἴκος, "large the house (is)."

In Quechua —Southern Quechua used for the examples—, zero copula is restricted to present tense in third person singular only (kan): Payqa runam  — "(s)he is a human"; but: (paykuna) runakunam kanku "(they) are human".

In Hungarian, zero copula is restricted to present tense in third person singular and plural: Ő ember/Ők emberek — "s/he is a human"/"they are humans"; but: (én) ember vagyok "I am a human", (te) ember vagy "you are a human", mi emberek vagyunk "we are humans", (ti) emberek vagytok "you (all) are humans". The copula also reappears for stating locations: az emberek a házban vannak, "the people are in the house," and for stating time: hat óra van, "it is six o'clock." However, the copula may optionally get omitted in colloquial language: hat óra (van), "it is six o'clock."

Hungarian uses a copula to say Itt van Róbert "Bob is here" (and this not only with regard to third person singular/plural), but not to say Róbert öreg "Bob is old". This is to relate a subject to a more temporary condition/state taking place in space (very often in the sense of Lojban zvati: la rabyrt. zvati ne'i le zdani "Robert is in the house").

Further restrictions may apply before omission is permitted. For example, in the Irish language, is, the present tense of the copula, may be omitted when the predicate is a noun. Ba the past/conditional cannot be deleted. If the present copula is omitted, the following pronoun é, í, iad preceding the noun is omitted as well.

Essence versus state[link]

Romance copulae usually consist of two different verbs that can be translated as "to be", the main one from the Latin esse (via Vulgar Latin essere; esse deriving from *es-), often referenced as sum, another of the Latin verb's principal parts), and a secondary one from stare (from *sta-), often referenced as sto, another of that Latin verb's principal parts. The resulting distinction in the modern forms is found in Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent Italian, but not in French or Romanian. The difference is that the first usually refers to essential characteristics, while the second refers to states and situations, e.g., "Bob is old" versus "Bob is well". A similar division is found in the non-Romance Basque language (viz. egon and izan). (Note that the English words just used, "essential" and "state", are also cognate with the Latin infinitives esse and stare.) In Spanish, the high degree of verbal inflection, plus the existence of two copulas (ser and estar), means that there are 105 separate forms to express the copula, compared to eight in English and one in Chinese.

In some cases, the verb itself changes the meaning of the adjective/sentence. The following examples are from Portuguese:

In certain languages, not only are there two copulas but the syntax is also changed when one is distinguishing between states or situations and essential characteristics. For example, in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, describing the subject's state or situation typically uses the normal VSO ordering with the verb bí. The copula is, which is used to state essential characteristics or equivalences, requires a change in word order so that the subject does not immediately follow the copula (see Irish syntax).

In Slavic languages, a similar distinction is made by putting a state in the instrumental case, while characteristics are in the nominative. This is used with all the copulas (e.g., "become" is normally used with the instrumental). It also allows the distinction to be made when the copula is omitted (zero copula) in East Slavic languages (in other Slavic languages the copula is not omitted).

Irish[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In Irish, the copula is used for things that are in a permanent state.

Is fear Liam	"Liam is a man"	(lit., is man Liam)
Is leabhar é sin	"That is a book"	(lit., is book it that)

The word "is" is the copula (rhymes with the English word "hiss"). The pronoun used with the copula is different from the normal pronoun. For a masculine singular noun, "é" is used (for "he" or "it"), as opposed to the normal pronoun "sé"; for a feminine singular noun, "í" is used (for "she" or "it"), as opposed to normal pronoun "sí"; for plural nouns, "iad" is used (for "they" or "those"), as opposed to the normal pronoun "siad".^[6]

To describe non-permanent states, "to be" is used, e.g., Tá mé ag rith "I am running".

This system resembles the Essence versus state distinction of the Romance copula.

Haitian Creole[link]

Haitian Creole, a French-based creole language, has a reputation as being rather exotic from a linguistic standpoint when compared to French and the other Romance languages; its copula system is one of the exotic linguistic features. It has three forms of the copula: se, ye, and the zero copula, no word at all (the position of which will be indicated with Ø, just for purposes of illustration).

Although no textual record exists of Haitian at its earliest stages of development from French, se is derived from French [se] (written c'est), which is the normal French contraction of [sə] (that, written ce) and the copula [e] (is, written est) (a form of the verb être). Note that French had long since lost any Latin esse/stare distinction by time of the colonization of Haiti, and so no such distinction appears in Haitian Creole.

The derivation of ye is less obvious; but we can assume that the French source was [ile] ("he/it is", written il est), which, in rapidly spoken French, is very commonly pronounced as [je] (typically written y est).

The use of a zero copula is unknown in French, and it is thought to be an innovation from the early days when Haitian was first developing as a Romance-based pidgin. Latin also sometimes used a zero copula.

Which of se / ye / Ø is used in any given copula clause depends on complex syntactic factors that we can superficially summarize in the following four rules:

1. Use Ø (i.e., no word at all) in declarative sentences where the complement is an adjective phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverb phrase:

Li te Ø an Ayiti.	"She was in Haiti."	(she past-tense in Haiti)
Liv-la Ø jon.	"The book is yellow."	(book-the yellow)
Timoun-yo Ø lakay.	"The kids are [at] home."	(kids-the home)

2. Use se when the complement is a noun phrase. But note that, whereas other verbs come after any tense/mood/aspect particles (like pa to mark negation, or te to explicitly mark past tense, or ap to mark progressive aspect), se comes before any such particles:

Chal se ekriven.	"Charles is writer."
Chal se pa ekriven.	"Charles is not writer." cf. with the verb kouri ("run"): Chal pa kouri, not Chal kouri pa.
Chal, ki se ekriven, pa vini.	"Charles, who is writer, not come."

3. Use se where French and English have a dummy "it" subject:

Se mwen!	"It's me!" French C'est moi!
Se pa fasil.	"It's not easy," colloquial French C'est pas facile.

4. Finally, use the other copula form ye in situations where the sentence's syntax leaves the copula at the end of a phrase:

Kijan ou ye?	"How you are?"
Pou kimoun liv-la te ye?	"Whose book was it?"	(of who book-the past-tense is?)
M pa konnen kimoun li ye.	"I don't know who he is."	(I not know who he is)
Se yon ekriven Chal ye.	"Charles is a writer!"	(it's a writer Charles is; cf. French C'est un écrivain qu'il est.)

The above is, however, only a simplified analysis.^[7][8]

Japanese[link]

Japanese has copulas that would most often be translated as one of the so-called be-verbs of English.

The Japanese copula has many forms. The words da and desu are used to predicate sentences, while na and de are particles used within sentences to modify or connect.

Japanese sentences with copulas most often equate one thing with another, that is, they are of the form "A is B." Examples:

私は学生だ。	Watashi wa gakusei da.	"I'm a student."	(lit., I TOPIC student COPULA)
これはペンです。	Kore wa pen desu.	"This is a pen."	(lit., this TOPIC pen COPULA-POLITE)

The difference between da and desu appears simple. For instance desu is more formal and polite than da. Thus, many sentences such as the ones below are almost identical in meaning and differ in the speaker's politeness to the addressee and in nuance of how assured the person is of their statement. However, desu may never come before the end of a sentence, and da is used exclusively to delineate subordinate clauses. In addition, da is always declarative, never interrogative.

あれはホテルだ。	Are wa hoteru da.	"That's a hotel."	(lit., that TOPIC hotel COPULA)
あれはホテルです。	Are wa hoteru desu.	"That is a hotel."	(lit., that TOPIC hotel COPULA-POLITE)

Japanese sentences may be predicated with copulas or with verbs. However, desu may not always be a predicate. In some cases, its only function is to make a sentence predicated with a stative verb more polite. However, da always functions as a predicate, so it cannot be combined with a stative verb, because sentences need only one predicate. See the examples below.

このビールはおいしい。	Kono bīru wa oishii.	"This beer is delicious."	(lit., this beer TOPIC be-tasty)
このビールはおいしいです。	Kono bīru wa oishii desu.	"This beer is good."	(lit., this beer TOPIC be-tasty POLITE)
*このビールはおいしいだ。	*Kono bīru wa oishii da.	This is unacceptable because da may only serve as a predicate.

There are several theories as to the origin of desu; one is that it is a shortened form of であります de arimasu, which is a polite form of である de aru. In general, both forms are used in only writing and more formal situations. Another form, でございます de gozaimasu, which is the more formal version of de arimasu, in the etymological sense a conjugation of でござる de gozaru and an honorific suffix -ます -masu, is also used in some situations and is very polite. Note that de aru and de gozaru are considered to be compounds of a particle で de, and existential verbs aru and gozaru. です desu may be pronounced っす ssu in colloquial speech. The copula is subject to dialectal variation throughout Japan, resulting in forms such as や ya (in Kansai) and じゃ ja (in Hiroshima).

Japanese also has two verbs corresponding to English "to be": aru and iru. They are not copulas but existential verbs. Aru is used for inanimate objects, including plants, whereas iru is used for animate things like people, animals, and robots, though there are exceptions to this generalization.

本はテーブルにある。	Hon wa tēburu ni aru.	"The book is on a table."
キムさんはここにいる。	Kimu-san wa koko ni iru.	"Kim is here."

Japanese people, when learning English, usually drop the auxiliary verbs "be" and "do" due to believing incorrectly that "be" is a semantically empty copula equivalent to "desu" and "da".^[9]

Korean[link]

For sentences with predicate nominatives, the copula "이다" (i-da) is added to the predicate nominative (with no space in between).

바나나는 과일이다.	Ba-na-na-neun gwa-il-i-da..	"Bananas are a fruit."

Some adjectives (usually color adjectives) are nominalized and used with the copula "이다".

1. Without the copula "이다":

바나나는 노랗다.	ba-na-na-neun no-rat-da..	"Bananas are yellow."

2. With the copula "이다":

바나나는 노란색이다.	ba-na-na-neun no-ran-saek-i-da..	"Bananas are yellow-coloured."

Some Korean adjectives are derived using the copula. Separating these articles and nominalizing the former part will often result in a sentence with a related, but different meaning. Using the separated sentence in a situation where the un-separated sentence is appropriate is usually acceptable as the listener can decide what the speaker is trying to say using the context.

아이스크림은 맛있다.	A-i-seu-keu-rim-eun mash-it-da..	"Ice cream is delicious" (The word delicious is derived from "has-flavor")
아이스크림은 맛이 있다.	A-i-seu-keu-rim-eun mash-i it-da..	"Ice cream has flavor"

The opposite, ice cream is unappetizing, uses the Korean word "없다" (eopt-da), meaning "to not have".

아이스크림은 맛없다.	A-i-seu-keu-rim-eun mat-eopt-da..	"Ice cream is unappetizing" (The word unappetizing is derived from "doesn't-have-flavor")
아이스크림은 맛이 없다.	A-i-seu-keu-rim-eun mash-i eopt-da..	"Ice cream doesn't have flavor"

Chinese[link]

N.B. The characters used are simplified ones, and the transcriptions given in italics reflect Standard Chinese pronunciation, using the Pinyin system.

In Chinese languages, both states and qualities are, in general, expressed with stative verbs (SV) with no need for a copula, e.g., in Mandarin, "to be tired" (累 lèi), "to be hungry" (饿 è), "to be located at" (在 zài), "to be stupid" (笨 bèn) and so forth. These verbs are usually preceded by an adverb such as 很 hěn ("very") or 不 bù ("not"). A sentence could also simply use a pronoun and a verb: for example, 我饿。 wǒ è. "I am hungry."

Only sentences with a noun as the complement (e.g., "this is my sister") use the verb "to be": 是 shì. This is used frequently: For example, instead of having a verb meaning "to be Chinese", the usual expression is "to be a Chinese person", using 是 shì. Some scholars call this verb form an equative verb (EV), as published in some Yale Chinese textbooks.

The history of the Chinese copula 是 is a controversial subject.^{[citation needed]} Before the Han Dynasty, the character served as a demonstrative pronoun meaning "this" (this usage survives in some idioms and proverbs, as well as in Japanese). Some linguists argue that 是 developed into a copula because it often appeared, as a repetitive subject, after the subject of a sentence (in classical Chinese we can say, for example: "George W. Bush, this president of the United States" meaning "George W. Bush is the president of the United States).^[10] Other scholars do not completely accept the explanation, proposing that 是 served as a demonstrative pronoun and a copula at the same time in ancient Chinese.^{[citation needed]} Etymologically, 是 developed from the meaning of "straight"; in modern Chinese, however, it can be combined with the modifier 的 de to mean "yes" or to show agreement. e.g. Question: 你的汽车是不是红色的？ nǐ de qìchē shì bú shì hóngsè de? "Is your car red or not?" Response: 是的。 shì de. "Is.", meaning "Yes.", or 不是。 bú shì. "Not is.", meaning "No." A more common way of showing that the person asking the question is correct is by simply saying "right" or "correct", 对 duì, which drops the modifier 的 de; the corresponding negative answer is 不对 bú duì, "Not right."

In Hokkien 是 sī acts as the copula, and 是 /z/ is the equivalent in Wu Chinese. Cantonese uses 係 (Jyutping: hai6) instead of 是; similarly, Hakka uses 係 he⁵⁵.

Siouan languages[link]

In Siouan languages like Lakota, in principle almost all words — according to their structure — are verbs. So, not very unlike in Lojban (see below), not only (transitive, intransitive and so-called 'stative') verbs but even nouns often behave like verbs and do not need to have copulas.

For example, the word wičháša refers to a man, and the verb "to-be-a-man" is expressed as wimáčhaša/winíčhaša/wičháša (I am/you are/he is a man). Yet there also is a copula héčha (to be a ...) that in most cases is used: wičháša hemáčha/heníčha/héčha (I am/you are/he is a man).

In order to express the statement "I am a doctor of profession," one has to say pezuta wičháša hemáčha. But, in order to express that that person is THE doctor (say, that had been phoned to help), one must use another copula iyé (to be the one): pežúta wičháša (kiŋ) miyé yeló (medicine-man DEF ART I-am-the-one MALE ASSERT).

In order to refer to space (e.g., Robert is in the house), various verbs are used, e.g., yaŋkÁ (lit.: to sit) for humans, or háŋ/hé (to stand upright) for inanimate objects of a certain shape. "Robert is in the house" could be translated as Robert thimáhel yaŋké (yeló), whereas "there's one restaurant next to the gas station" translates as "owótethipi wígli-oínažiŋ kiŋ hél isákhib waŋ hé".

Constructed languages[link]

The constructed language Lojban has copulas, but they are rarely used, and are sometimes viewed with distaste in the Lojban community, because all words that express a predicate can be used as verbs. The three sentences "Bob runs", "Bob is old", and "Bob is a fireman", for instance, would all have the same form in Lojban: la bob. bajra, la bob. tolcitno, and la bob. fagdirpre. There are several different copulas: me turns whatever follows the word me into a verb that means to be what it follows. For example, me la bob. means to be Bob. Another copula is du, which is a verb that means all its arguments are the same thing (equal).^[11]

The E-Prime language, based on English, simply avoids the issue by not having a generic copula. It requires instead a specific form such as "remains", "becomes", "lies", or "equals".

Esperanto uses the copula much as English. The infinitive is esti, and the whole conjugation is regular (as with all Esperanto verbs). In addition, adjectival roots can be turned into stative verbs: La ĉielo bluas. "The sky is blue."

Likewise, Ido has a copula that works as English "to be". Its infinitive is esar, and, as is the case in Esperanto, all of its forms are regular: The simple present is esas for all persons; the simple past is esis, the simple future is esos, and the imperative is esez, among a few more forms. However, Ido also has an alternative irregular form for the simple present ("es"), which some Idists frown upon. The possibility to turn adjectives and even nouns into verbs also exist, although this is mostly done by means of an affix, on top of the verbal endings. The affix is "-es-". So, "The sky is blue." can be said as "La cielo bluesas". As can be seen, the suffix "-es-" plus the verbal desinence "-as" are simply the verb "to be" annexed to the adjectival or nominal root.

Interlingua speakers use copulas with the same freedom as speakers of Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages. In addition to combinations with esser ('to be'), expressions such as cader prede ('to fall prey') are common. Esser is stated, rather than omitted as in Russian.

Existential usage[link]

The existential usage of "to be" is distinct from and yet, in some languages, intimately related to its copulative usage. In language as opposed to formal logic, existence is a predicate rather than a quantifier, and the passage from copulative to existential usage can be subtle. In modern linguistics, one commonly speaks of existential constructions - prototypically involving an expletive like there - rather than existential use of the verb itself. So, for example in English, a sentence like "there is a problem" would be considered an instance of existential construction. Relying on unified theory of copular sentences, it has been proposed that there-sentences are subtypes of inverse copular sentences (see Moro 1997 and "existential sentences and expletive there" in Everaert et al. 2006 for a detailed discussion of this issue and a historical survey of the major proposals).

For example:

• Arabic: يمكنه أن يبدو أن يكون ذكياً – Yumkinuhu ʼan yabdu ʼan yakūna ḏakiyyan. — He can appear (to be) smart.
• Japanese: 吾輩は猫である。名前はまだない。 Wagahai wa neko de aru. Namae wa mada nai – I am a cat. As yet, I have no name. — Natsume Sōseki
• English: To be or not to be, that is the question. — William Shakespeare
• English: [Why climb Mount Everest?] Because it is there. — George Mallory
• Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה Ehyeh asher ehyeh. – I am that I am. — Exodus 3:14.
• Russian: Страна, которую ищут дети, есть. – Strana, kotoruju iščut deti, jest'. – The country, which children are looking for, exists. — Mikhail Prishvin
• French: Je pense, donc je suis. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes
• Latin: Cogito ergo sum. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes
• Hungarian: Gondolkodom, tehát vagyok. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes
• Turkish: Düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes
• Finnish: Ajattelen, siis olen. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes
• Filipino/Tagalog: Ang kahalagahan ng pagiging seryoso. – The importance of being Earnest. — Oscar Wilde

Other languages prefer to keep the existential usage entirely separate from the copula. Swedish, for example, reserves vara (to be) for the copula, keeping bli (to become) and finnas (to exist, lit. to be found) for becoming and existing, respectively.

• Swedish: Vem vill bli miljonär? – Who wants to be a millionaire?. (Literally "Who wants to become millionaire?") — Bengt Magnusson
• Swedish: Varför bestiga Mt. Everest? Därför att det finns där. – Why climb Mt. Everest? Because it is there. (Literally "Why climb Mt. Everest? Because it is found there") — George Mallory

In Spanish, ser (to be) is the copula, and estar (to be, to remain) and existir (to exist) are for being in a place and existing, respectively.

• Spanish: Pienso, luego existo. – I think; therefore, I am. — Descartes

In ontology, philosophical discussions of the word "be" and its conjugations takes place over the meaning of the word is, the third person singular form of 'be', and whether the other senses can be reduced to one sense. For example, it is sometimes suggested that the "is" of existence is reducible to the "is" of property attribution or class membership; to be, Aristotle held, is to be something. Of course, the gerund form of "be", being, is its own (vexed) topic: see being and existence.

Unified theory of copular sentences[link]

Along with canonical copular constructions wherein the canonical order of predication is displayed - that is, the subject precedes the predicate - as in "a picture of the wall is the cause of the riot," there can also be a symmetric type wherein the order of the two noun phrases is mirrored as in "the cause of the riot is a picture of the wall" (cf. Everaert et al. 2006). Although these two sentences are superficially very similar, it can be shown that they embody very different properties. So, for example, it is possible to form a sentence like "which riot do you think that a picture of the wall is the cause of" but not "*which wall do you think that the cause of the riot was a picture of". The distinction between these two types of sentences, in the technical sense referred to as "canonical" vs. inverse copular sentences, respectively - and the unified theory of copular sentences associated to it - has been proven to be valid across-languages and has led to some refinement of the theory of clause structure. In particular, it challenges one of the major dogmas of the theory of clause structure, i.e., that the two basic constituents of a sentence Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase are associated to the logical/grammatical functions of subject and predicate (cf. phrase structure rules and sentence (linguistics)).

This perspective has been argued against on empirical grounds, since the Noun Phrase that cooccurs with the Verb Phrase in a copular sentence can be the predicate and the subject be contained in the Verb Phrase. It has been suggested that inverse copular sentences appear to play a sharp role in setting the pro-drop parameter. In Italian, for example, in sentences of the type Noun Phrase verb Noun Phrase, the verb, in general, agrees with the Noun Phrase on the left with one exception: inverse copular sentences. One can construe minimal pairs like the cause of the riot is/*are these pictures of the wall vs. la causa della rivolta sono/*è queste foto del muro: The two sentences are one the gloss of the other with only one difference: The copula is singular in Italian and plural in English. If one does not want to give up the idea that agreement is on the left, then the only option is to assume that pro occurs between the copula and the Noun Phrase on the left. That pro can occur as a predicate must be in fact independently assumed to assign a proper structure to sentences like sono io (am I: "it's me"), which can by no means be considered a transformation of *io sono, which has no meaning.

See also[link]

• Indo-European copula
• List of English copulas
• Nominal sentence
• Predicate (grammar)
• Stative verb
• Verb

Notes[link]

References[link]

Wil Wheaton
Wheaton in May 2011.
Born	Richard William Wheaton III (1972-07-29) July 29, 1972 (age 39) Burbank, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, writer
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Anne Prince (m. 1999)
Children	Two stepsons, one adopted[1]
Website
wilwheaton.typepad.com

Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers. As a writer, he is best known for his blogs Wil Wheaton Dot Net and WWdN: In Exile.

Early life[link]

Wheaton was born in Burbank, California, to Debbie (née O’Connor), an actress, and Richard William Wheaton, Jr., a medical specialist.^[2][3] He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy. Both appeared uncredited in the episode "When the Bough Breaks" of Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[4]

Career[link]

[edit] Star Trek and early career

Wheaton made his acting debut in the 1981 TV film A Long Way Home, and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH, the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He had a minor role in the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter. He first gained widespread attention in 1986 as Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me, the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Body. In 1991, he played Joey Trotta in the film Toy Soldiers.

From 1987 to 1990, he appeared in the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation throughout its first four seasons.

Although his Star Trek character, and by extension Wheaton himself, was disliked by a vocal group of Trekkies during TNG's first run, he commented about his critics in an interview for WebTalk Radio:

Later, I determined that the people who were really, really cruel – like the Usenet weenies – really are a statistically insignificant number of people. And I know, just over the years from people who've e-mailed me at my web site and people who I've talked to since I started going to Star Trek conventions again in the last five years, that there are so many more people who really enjoyed everything about the show, including my performance, including the character.^[5]

After leaving Star Trek, Wheaton moved to Topeka, Kansas, to work for NewTek, where he helped to develop the Video Toaster 4000, doing product testing and quality control.^[6][7] He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.^[8] Wheaton said this was a period of growth in his life, and living out of Los Angeles helped him deal with anger issues. He came back to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, then re-entered the acting world.^[9][10]

Wheaton's popularity among Star Trek fandom is covered in a number of web comics. ArcaneTimes of March 25, 2005 offers a sympathetic position.^[11] Something Positive presents a range of opinions as part of the storyline Mike's Kid.^[12] Abstruse Goose tries to distinguish between the character and the actor.^[13]

He was a contestant on a 2001 episode of The Weakest Link featuring Star Trek actors as contestants to win money for a charity each had chosen.

[edit] Post-Star Trek

In the late 1990s, Wheaton appeared in several independent films, including the award-winning The Good Things, in which he portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker;^[14] it was selected Best Short Film at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival. He received the Best Actor award at the 2002 Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his performance in Jane White Is Sick & Twisted.

He has worked as a voice actor in many original series, video games and anime, which started as young Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH when he was 10 years old. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoon Teen Titans, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,^[15] Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary, Himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold in the episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, Hans in Slayers Evolution-R and Aaron Terzieff in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.

Wheaton has performed improvisational and sketch comedy at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood. He has a traveling sketch comedy/improv troupe called "EarnestBorg9" that performs science fiction-related comedy at conventions.

Wheaton at San Diego Comic Con 2010

He appeared as himself in a skit on nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot's album Final Boss attempting to be a rapper, whose rhymes only involved shellfish. He later collaborated with Frontalot on "Your Friend Wil", a track from the album Zero Day on the subject of Wheaton's Law. Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

From September 2006 to September 2007, he hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and veteran host Hahn Choi.

Wheaton's more recent acting work includes guest appearances on the November 23, 2007 episode of the TV series Numb3rs, and the October 22, 2008 episode of the series Criminal Minds. He has also appeared in Internet presentations, including a cameo in a comedy sketch ("Lock Out") for LoadingReadyRun ^[16] (and a reprise of the same the following year in CommodoreHustle 4), and the May 30, 2008 episode of the Internet series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.

Wheaton appears in seasons three, four and five of the web series "The Guild" as Fawkes, the leader for a rival guild known as Axis of Anarchy.^[17] He also appears in seasons two, three and four of the TV series Leverage, as rival computer hacker Colin "Chaos" Mason, antagonist to Leverage team hacker Alec Hardison.

He appeared in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" (2009), the fifth episode of the third season of the situation comedy The Big Bang Theory, playing a fictionally antagonistic version of himself, as the focus of Sheldon Cooper's ire for not having attended a Star Trek convention at which his appearance was scheduled.^[18] He later appeared on the show in episodes "The Wheaton Recurrence", which involves a bout at a bowling alley,^[19] and "The 21-Second Excitation" at a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Wheaton returned in Season Five of The Big Bang Theory in the episode "The Russian Rocket Reaction".^[20] In it Leonard gets invited to Wheaton's house-party and Sheldon is angry because of this. However, his conflict with Wheaton is brought to an end when Sheldon turns up to the party and Wil gives him a signed Wesley Crusher action figure which Brent Spiner opens, causing Sheldon to put Spiner on his list of "Mortal Enemies". He also makes an appearance in the episode "The Stag Convergence" as a guest to Howard's bachelor party.^[21]

Wheaton has done the reading for the audio CD of Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham, which was released on December 8, 2009.^[22] as well as the audio CD of Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline.

Wil is one of the three headline acts of the w00tstock shows, appearing in nearly all of them when his filming schedule has allowed.

Starting in the July 23, 2010 episode, Wheaton has appeared in a recurring, guest-starring role on Eureka, playing Dr. Isaac Parrish, the head of the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab at Global Dynamics and a thorn in Fargo's side.^[23]

Writing[link]

Wheaton runs his own weblog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net.

Between 2001 and fall 2004, he operated a message board, known as "The Soapbox" or "Paracosm", as part of the blog site. Two collections of writings taken from postings to the message board have been published, titled Boxer Shorts (ISBN 1-932461-00-0) and Boxer Shorts Redux (ISBN 1-932461-03-5).

He contributes regularly to the Los Angeles-based Metroblogging site. In June 2005, he became that month's featured Tech writer for the SuicideGirls Newswire.^[24] He had a monthly column, entitled "Wil Save," in the Dungeons & Dragons-based magazine Dungeon; in May 2005, he ceased writing it. From January 2005 to October 2006, he wrote a column for The Onion AV Club about early video games, called "Games of Our Lives." On December 12, 2008, he returned to his role as Geek in Review editor,^{[clarification needed]} with his editorials being published every second Wednesday of the month.

Wil Wheaton (left) meets Tim O'Reilly at the 2003 booksigning of Dancing Barefoot at Powell's in Portland, Oregon.

In spring 2003, he founded the independent publishing company Monolith Press and released a memoir entitled Dancing Barefoot. Monolith Press was "founded on the idea that publication should not be limited by opportunity."^[25] Most of the entries are extended versions of his blog entries. Dancing Barefoot sold out three printings in four months.

In winter 2003 Wheaton signed to publisher Tim O'Reilly with a three-book contract. O'Reilly acquired Dancing Barefoot, and published his extended memoirs, Just a Geek, in summer of 2004. He has since written about his bitterness regarding how the book was marketed, believing it was pitched as a Star Trek book when he intended it as more of a personal memoir.^[26]

In February 2009, Wheaton released Sunken Treasure: Wil Wheaton's Hot Cocoa Box Sampler. As a chapbook, it contains several small extracts of various different projects, including two short stories from Ficlets, an ACME comedy sketch, and a Criminal Minds production diary. Instead of using traditional publishing, Wheaton decided to self-publish using Lulu Publishing, something he has continued to do with all his publications since. Since publishing with Lulu, he has made all of his books available as both paperbacks and digital downloadable files.

Later that same year, Wheaton released Memories of the Future: Volume 1, a humorous critique of the first thirteen episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Memories features a review of each episode, as well as an account of Wheaton's own experiences with and memories of that episode.

Closing up 2009, Wheaton published "Happiest Days of Our Lives", and his son, Ryan, contributed by writing the afterword.

Wheaton has also recorded several of his non-self-published books as downloadable audiobooks. These include Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and his Criminal minds diary from Sunken Treasure. He also released excerpts of Memories of The Future: Vol 1 as free podcasts.

Politics[link]

Wheaton described himself as a liberal in 2005.^[27] In September 2006 he criticized George W. Bush's plan to permit torture of unlawful combatants: "Shame on President Bush. Shame on his Republican allies in Congress."^[28]

A column that he wrote for Salon.com in 2005, The Real War on Christmas, attacked commentators like Bill O'Reilly and detailed his arguments with his conservative parents over current political matters.^[27] Wheaton's parents were very offended by the article, and he posted a lengthy apology on his site and an interview in which his parents clarified their political views.^[29]

On August 24, 2007, he gave the keynote for the yearly Penny Arcade Expo, which was subsequently made available online.^[30] He stepped in following a public battle between the formerly-scheduled keynote debate participants, noted anti-games activist Jack Thompson and Hal Halpin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). Much of Wheaton’s address focused on the debate over violence in video games. He also gave the keynote at PAX East 2010 in Boston, MA.

He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election^[31] and opposed Proposition 8, calling it "nothing but hate and discrimination".^[32]

Games[link]

In 2003, Wheaton mentioned his love for the game of poker on his blog. The following year, he began writing more extensively about his poker-playing experiences, including stories about playing Texas hold 'em tournaments locally and in Las Vegas. Eventually, he worked up to regular play, including a run at the 2005 World Poker Tour Championships. On June 23, 2005, Wheaton accepted an invitation to join Team PokerStars.^[33] He went on to play in that year's World Series of Poker and was the guest speaker for the 2005 B.A.R.G.E Banquet. In June 2007, he announced he would no longer be on Team Pokerstars due to changes in the U.S. legal system that would cause poker sites to have to focus on European and Asian markets^[34] and held a farewell Pokerstars tournament on June 5, 2007, which he titled So Long and Thanks for All the Chips.^[35]

Wheaton is a Dungeons & Dragons player,^[36] and played during the PAX 2010 and PAX 2011 events using the 4th edition rules. Wheaton, along with webcartoonists Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade, and Scott Kurtz of PvP, played in front of a live audience. The game was hosted and recorded by Wizards of the Coast with Chris Perkins as the dungeonmaster.^[37]

Comic book[link]

Wil Wheaton made a guest appearance in the comic book PS 238. He appears as himself, but with the power of telekinesis. A PS 238 teacher, Alloy, is his adoring fan.

Wheaton's debut comic book "The Guild: Fawkes" which he wrote alongside Felicia Day was released on May 2012.

Audiobooks[link]

Wil Wheaton narrates many audiobooks, including Ready Player One by Ernest Cline^[38], "Fuzzy Nation" by John Scalzi^[39] (and other Scalzi works), and "Byways" part of METAtropolis: Cascadia by Tobias Buckell^[40].

Wheaton's law[link]

During his keynote speech at the 2007 PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), Wheaton made a note about sportsmanship when playing games online. It has since become known as Wheaton's rule or law, which states "Don't be a dick!"^[41] This was intended to apply to life in general, not just online gaming.^[42]

A revision of Wheaton's law is an expansion by comics artist and writer Bill Willingham, which states: "Don't be a dick, but it's okay to play one on TV."^[43]

Personal life[link]

Wheaton was roommates with Chris Hardwick for some time.^[9][44] They met at a showing of Arachnophobia in Burbank, California.^[9]

Wheaton married Anne Prince in 1999. They and Prince's two sons from a previous relationship, Nolan and Ryan, live in Arcadia, California.^[45] When Ryan was 19, he asked Wheaton to legally adopt him, which he did.^[46]

Wil Wheaton has been friends with writer and radio-host Lazlow Jones, as revealed in The Lazlow Show in several episodes in both anecdotes from the hosts and in Wil's participation as a guest.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• Meat Puppet (1980)
• A Long Way Home (1981)
• The Shooting (1982)
• Highway to Heaven (1985)
• St. Elsewhere (1986)
• The Defiant Ones (1986)
• Long Time Gone (1986)
• Family Ties (1987)
• Young Harry Houdini (1987) (ABC)
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)
• My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He? (1989)
• Family Double Dare (1990)
• Monsters (1990)
• The Arsenio Hall Show (1991)
• The Last Prostitute (1991)
• Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special (1991)
• Tales from the Crypt (1993)
• It Was Him or Us (1995)
• Mr. Stitch (1995)
• The Outer Limits: "The Light Brigade" (1996)
• The Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998)
• Diagnosis: Murder (1998)
• The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998)
• The Flintstones: On the Rocks (2001)
• The Invisible Man: Perchance to Dream (2001)
• Twice in a Lifetime Episode 22 "The Choice" (2001)
• Weakest Link (2001) (Star Trek-themed edition)
• Beat the Geeks (2002)
• A&E Biography: "Eclipsed by Death – The Life of River Phoenix" (2002 - narrator)
• Walking the Tracks: The Summer of "Stand by Me" (2002) (Stand by Me documentary)
• Arena (2002) (also as writer)
• Favorite Stars: Then & Now (2003)
• Book of Days (2003)
• The Screen Savers (2003, 2002)
• Call for Help (2004)
• Teen Titans (2004–2005) (voice of Aqualad)
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (2005) (voice)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2005)
• I Love the '80s 3-D (2005)
• I Love Toys (2006)
• Legion of Super Heroes (2006) (voice of Cosmic Boy)
• Ben 10 (2007) (voice)
• Ben 10: Alien Force/Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (voice of Mike Morningstar/Darkstar)
• Numb3rs: "Graphic" (2007) (as Miles Sklar, 1 episode)
• What I Learned From the Movies (2007)
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) (as Blue Beetle/Ted Kord)
• I Love the New Millennium (2008)
• Criminal Minds (2008) (Episode "Paradise" as Floyd Hansen/Wayne Dryden)
• Kyle + Rosemary (2008) (voice)
• Family Guy (2009 & 2010) (voice) (Episodes "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Partial Terms of Endearment", as himself and a protester)
• Naruto (2009) (voice of Menma)
• Kurokami: The Animation (2009) (voice of Yakumo)
• Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy (2009) (voice)
• The Big Bang Theory (2009–2012) ("The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", "The Wheaton Recurrence", "The 21-Second Excitation" , "The Russian Rocket Reaction" and "The Stag Convergence" as himself)
• Leverage (2009-2012) ("The Two Live Crew Job" (2009), "The Ho Ho Ho Job" (2010), and "The Last Dam Job" (2012) as Chaos)
• Slayers Evolution-R (2010) (voice of Hans)
• Naruto Shippuden: The Movie (2010) (voice of Taruho and Shizuku)
• Eureka (2010) (Season 4) (as Dr. Parrish)
• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2011) (Episode 3: "Ghost of Laplace") (voice of Aaron Terzieff, Additional Voices)

Movies[link]

• The Secret of NIMH (1982) (voice)
• Hambone and Hillie (1983)
• The Last Starfighter (1984) (scenes deleted from film but included as DVD extra)
• The Buddy System (1984)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• The Curse (1987)
• She's Having a Baby (1988) (uncredited cameo)
• Toy Soldiers (1991)
• December (1991)
• The Liars' Club (1993)
• Pie in the Sky (1996)
• Boys' Night Out (1996)
• Mr Stitch (1996)
• Trekkies (1997)
• Flubber (1997)
• Tales of Glamour and Excess (1997)
• Fag Hag (1998)
• Foreign Correspondents (1999)
• The Girls' Room (2000)
• Deep Core (2000)
• Python (2000)
• Speechless... (2001)
• The Good Things (2001)
• Jane White is Sick and Twisted (2002)
• Fish Don't Blink (2002)
• Star Trek Nemesis (2002) (briefly; extended scene deleted but appears as DVD extra in some regions)
• Book of Days (2003)
• Four Fingers of the Dragon (2003)
• Neverland (2003)
• Americanizing Shelley (2007)
• Star Trek (2009) (voices various Romulans)^[47]

Internet video[link]

Video games[link]

• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (2003) (voice)
• EverQuest II (2004) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (2004) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown (2005) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (2005) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (2006) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) (voice)
• Fallout New Vegas (2010) (voice of Robobrain)
• DC Universe Online (voice of Robin)

Bibliography[link]

• Dancing Barefoot (ISBN 0-596-00674-8) (2003)
• Just a Geek (ISBN 0-596-00768-X) (2004)
• Stories of Strength (ISBN 1-4116-5503-6) (2005; contributor)
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives (ISBN 0-9741160-2-5) (2007)
• Sunken Treasure (2009)
• Memories of the Future Vol. 1 (2009)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wil Wheaton

• Wil's Typepad weblog - aka WWdN: In Exile
• Wil's Reddit weblog - Posts about various topics he chooses to join discussions in.
• Wil's website - Wil Wheaton Dot Net
• Wil Wheaton at the Internet Movie Database
• Wil Wheaton at AllRovi
• Wil Wheaton at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Wil Wheaton at the Open Directory Project
• Wil Wheaton at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia