Knowledge base · Part XII — The Simple Clause and Nonverbal Predication · this topic as a network
96. The Copula ne and Predicate-Nominal Clauses
How does Hokkaido Ainu form equational and class-membership predication, and what is the grammatical status of the copula ne?
Overview
How frequent is the copula ne in the corpus and what homophones does it conflate?
tapan is often used in place of the verb ne in verse and formal expressions. (Nakagawa 2024: 401)
Clause template
What is the word order and case marking of predicate-nominal clauses with the copula ne?
The copula ne cannot form a sentence on its own and requires a nominal complement. (Refsing 1986: 77, 273) The copular verb nee and its inflected form ku=nee are frequently omitted, in which case the sentence-final portion is spoken with a rising intonation. (Murasaki 2025: 8) The copula nee can be omitted by pronouncing the preceding noun with a high pitch, resulting in a sentence ending in a noun. (Murasaki 2025: 90) Sentences ending directly in a noun are basically avoided in Ainu, and expressing 'A = B' requires the copular verb ne after the noun. (Nakagawa 2022: 14.2) The nominal complement of the copula ne may be a noun expression, a noun modified by an adnominalized clause, or a nominalized sentence. (Refsing 1986: 273) The nominal complement of the copula may be accompanied by a restrictive postposition. (Refsing 1986: 273) When the subject is second person, the copula ne appears even in a sentence containing hunna 'who', as in hunna e-ne? 'Who are you?'. (Satō 2008: 140)
Person marking and verbal status
What person-marking affixes does the copula ne take, and how do analysts categorize it?
The copular verb ne takes transitive subject (A-series) personal markers but never takes object (O-series) markers. (Bugaeva 2012: 470–471, 472–473, Bugaeva 2015: 44, Satō 2023, Satō 2025) In the Shizunai dialect, the copula ne prefixes nominative pronominal affixes but does not combine with objective affixes. (Refsing 1986: 143, 144) The copula ne 'be, become' is regarded as a special kind of transitive verb because it takes A-series personal affixes but not O-series affixes. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) Incomplete intransitive verbs, such as ne ('to become'), follow exactly the same subjective conjugation pattern as transitive verbs. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) When the third-person plural suffix -(a)hci attaches to the copula stem nee, the stem vowel shortens to ne=hci (*nee-hci becomes ne-hci). (Murasaki 2025: 9) In Sakhalin Ainu, the second-person singular copular predicate 'you are...' is formed as 'e=nee. (Murasaki 2025: 64) In Sakhalin Ainu, the second-person plural copular predicate 'you (pl.) are...' is formed as 'eci=nee. (Murasaki 2025: 64) In Sakhalin Ainu, the third-person singular copular predicate 'he/she is...' is nee, without any person prefix. (Murasaki 2025: 66) In Sakhalin Ainu, the third-person plural copular predicate 'they are...' is formed as ne=hci. (Murasaki 2025: 66) The copula ne ('to be') is treated as a subclass of two-argument verbs, but unlike other two-argument verbs, it never takes object personal affixes. (Nakagawa 2024: 132) The copula ne cannot take any verbal prefixes or suffixes, but it may be followed by auxiliaries. (Refsing 1986: 145) The copula ne cannot take any verbal prefixes or suffixes. (Refsing 1986: 146) The copula ne may be followed by auxiliaries. (Refsing 1986: 146) The copula ne can take a nominative pronominal affix. (Refsing 1986: 273) The copula 'ne' is a kind of verb, but because it conjugates differently from ordinary verbs and forms negative expressions differently, it is called a designator (or copula). (Satō 2008: 21) When the copula ne incorporates a noun (e.g., inne 'many (people)' < ir-ne), its morphological valency decreases to 1 and the resulting verb undergoes intransitive personal inflection. (Satō 2023) The copula verb ne can take a second-person independent pronoun as a complement without a corresponding second-person marker on the verb, though this pattern is rare. (Satō 2025) The copula ne takes the same personal affixes as transitive verbs. (Shibatani 1990) In the Ishikari dialect, oray occurs as a suppletive plural copula form selected by a plural subject. (Shibatani 1990) The copula ne and its derived transitive verbs take transitive subject markers. (Shibatani 1990: 26)
Semantic readings
What semantic roles does the copula ne express, and which does it not express?
The copula ne expresses both 'be' and 'become'. (Nakagawa 2024: 119) To express 'to be', the translative case particle ne can be combined with the existential verb an as ne an. (Nakagawa 2024: 300) The copula ne expresses the equative and attributive meanings of the copula. (Refsing 1986: 143) The copula ne does not cover existential or locative meanings of 'to be', which are instead expressed by the existential verb an (sg.) / oka (pl.). (Refsing 1986: 143) The copula ne expresses the equative and attributive meanings of 'to be', but does not express existential or locative meanings, which are expressed by an (singular) and oka (plural). (Refsing 1986: 144) In expressions meaning 'What is X?' or 'Who is X?' such as taanpe hemanta an? and toan kur hunna an?, the verb an is used rather than the copula ne, and sentences like *taanpe hemanta ne? or *toan kur hunna ne? have not been attested. (Satō 2008: 140) The Ainu copula ne generally requires an equational relationship between its subject and complement (where the complement must properly predicate an inherent property of the subject), and unlike Japanese -da, 'eel sentences' (unagi-bun) are not permitted except in figurative expressions. (Satō 2008: 140) The expressions ne hine an and ne wa an have no aspectual meaning. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3)
The stative–inchoative duality
How does the copula ne encode both stative and inchoative readings without morphological change?
Ainu does not distinguish between 'being' and 'becoming', and the meaning of the copula ne can be static as well as dynamic. (Refsing 1986: 143, 144) The morpheme ne is the copula, and its meaning 'become' reflects the dynamic rather than static function of the copula. (Refsing 1986: 29) The morpheme ne is the copula, and its 'become' meaning reflects the dynamic, as opposed to the static, function of the copula. (Refsing 1986: 29) The copula ne can have an inchoative reading meaning 'to become X'. (Shibatani 1990)
Attributive ne in noun-noun compounds
What function does ne serve when occurring between two nouns within a noun phrase?
The mutative ne
How does the copula ne grammaticalize into a mutative case postposition?
The translative case is expressed by ne, which is derived from the verb ne 'to become'. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) The mutative case postposition ne denoting the result of a change represents a derived dynamic use of the copula ne. (proposed in Refsing 1986: 143) The mutative case postposition ne denotes the result of a change as a derived dynamic use of the copula ne. (Refsing 1986: 144) ne is a case particle marking state or change ('as, into, at'). (Satō 2008: 36)
Negation: X ka somo ne
What is the negation pattern for copular predicates in Hokkaido Ainu?
The negative form of the copular construction in Sakhalin Ainu is marked by ka hannehka (nee), in which nee is frequently omitted. (Murasaki 2025: 11, 15)
The formal-noun evidential tail
How does the copula ne function in the formal-noun evidential construction?
The copula ne frequently combines with the nominalizer ruwe as ruwe ne to close sentences assertively or emphatically. (Refsing 1986: 145, 146) In short questions and answers where ruwe is omitted, enta an ya and esta an ne assume the functions of both the copula and the sentence-final form, acting as an interrogative copula and an assertive copula respectively. (Refsing 1986: 237) In questions using the nominalizer ruwe, the copula ne appears before ruwe, as in tanpe hemanta ne ruwe an? 'What is this?'. (Satō 2008: 140)
Competing analyses of ne
What are the competing analyses of the grammatical category of the copula ne?
In content questions with the copula, ne is often replaced by the existential verb an, and in evidential content questions it is obligatorily replaced by an. (Bugaeva 2012: 496–497) an originally is a verb meaning 'there is' (to exist), but when combined with the locative particle ta or tap (as ta-an or tap-an), it acquires the meaning 'is' and functions simply as a copula like the verb ne. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936)