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A copula is a word that links the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a subject complement). In English, the copula is the verb "to be" (for example, the word "is" in the sentence "The sky is blue.") Most languages have one main copula, but some, such as Spanish and some other Romance languages, have more than one. This is because the verb or verbs meaning "to be" in the Romance languages are derived from not just one but ''three'' Latin verbs: : * "to sit" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European '' *sed-'', as in English ''sit''). * "to be" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European '' *h1es-'', as in English ''is'') The verb esse was an irregular, suppletive verb, with some of its forms (e.g. fuī "I was") taken from the Proto-Indo-European verb *bhuH- (as in English be). * "to stand" or "to stay" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European '' *steh2-'', as in English ''stand'' and German ''stehen''). As the Romance languages developed over time, the three separate Latin verbs became just one or two verbs in the Romance languages. The reduction of three separate verbs into just one or two happened in the following ways: *, and sounded similar in Latin, and sounded even more similar in Vulgar Latin, where became and was reduced to . As a result, parts of the conjugations of and became integrated into the conjugation of . * remained a separate verb. Increasingly, however, in the Western Romance languages, evolved into a second copula, with a meaning of "to be (temporarily or incidentally)"; was then narrowed to mean "to be (permanently or essentially)". *The irregular infinitive was remodeled into . The development of two copular verbs in this manner occurred most completely in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. In other languages, most usages of English "to be" are still translated by : *In Italian, has the primary meaning "to stay" and is used as a copula only in a few situations: to express one's state of physical health (''sto bene'' "I am well"); to form progressive tenses (''sto parlando'' "I am speaking"); and (especially in the south of Italy) with the meaning of "to be located". *In Old French, the verb ''ester'' < still had the original Proto-Romance meaning of "to stand, stay, stop". In modern French, this verb has quasi totally disappeared (see below for the one exception), although the compound ''rester'' "to remain" still exists, and some parts of the conjugation of ''ester'' have become incorporated into ''être'' "to be" < . As a result of this complex evolution, even though French has a single verb for "to be" (être), its conjugation is highly irregular. Portuguese also developed an additional copular verb ''ficar'', with the meaning "to be located" and "to become." ==History== In English, it is possible to say "there stands..." instead of "there is..." in certain contexts. In Latin, too, it became common to eschew SVM in favour of STO and say where things "stood" instead of where they "were". With time, it became common to use this verb to express other states. Today, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Catalan, and (to a lesser extent) Italian commonly use two copulas, one from each of the Latin verbs. The others use just one main copula, from SVM. There is also a notable tendency for a derivative of the supine of STO (STATVS, STATA, STATVM) to replace the past participle of verbs deriving from SVM (which in Latin had no supine). Examples: *Italian has ''stato'' as the past participle of not only ''stare'' but also ''essere'', instead of the expected ''essuto'' (which, along with ''suto'' we encounter only in mediaeval texts). *Standard Catalan has ''estat'' as the past participle of not only ''estar'' but also ''ésser''. However, many people use forms such as ''sigut'' or ''sét'', which are considered also standard for colloquial speech. *French has ''été'' as the past participle of ''être'', instead of the expected ''étu''. ''Été'' developed as follows: STATVM → ''stato'' → ''estat'' → ''esté'' → ''été''. ;Notes *Following the standard practice, Latin verbs are quoted here in the first person singular of the present indicative. In other words, SVM is literally "I am", rather than "to be". Their infinitives were ESSE and STARE. *Although it is normal to use lower case when writing Latin in modern times, this article, dealing as it does with etymology, presents Latin in the capital letters used by the Romans, and modern innovations such as J, U, ligatures, macrons, and breves have been avoided. * Only the basic simple tenses are given in the conjugation tables, but all languages below have also numerous compound tenses. * The asterisk ( *) indicates an incorrect or unattested form. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Romance copula」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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