Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

In this feature we consider a third kind of predicate phrases, focusing on the presence or absence of a copula in clauses with predicative locative phrases. We ask how a situation like 'Mary is in town' or 'The bird is on the tree' is expressed.

As in Features 73 and 74, a copula is defined as any overt element that occurs in such clauses apart from the subject and the predicative locative phrase and that does not normally occur in verbal clauses. Again, as for predicative noun phrases, only present-tense clauses are taken into account.