7.4. Copula


The copula is a special word that combines the subject of a sentence and its description. Copulas are often irregular in many languages. The English word be is a copula. It is the verb whose inflection is most irregular in English. It combines the subject and its description, such as "Apples are fruits" and "The sky is blue". However, the word is in "The book is on the desk" is not a copula but an existential verb similar to the verb exist.

The Japanese copula is (da) /da/. It is not a verb but a suffix added to nouns.
Here is an example of the copula:

Hiragana: (to)(u)(ki)(small yo)(u)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(da) (period)
Phonemes: toukyouwa (space)syu'toda
Structure: noun
(Tôkyô)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(is)
Meaning:Tôkyô is capital.

Since the copula (da) /da/ is not a verb but a suffix, the combination of the noun (si)(small yu)(to) /syu'to/ and the copula works as if it were a verb. It is important to treat them as a single verb. You cannot make a pause between the noun and the copula, and you cannot move the noun from the position immediately before the copula.
In other words, the copula (da) /da/ makes a noun work as a verb.

The copula has inflection like verbs, but it is highly irregular. The past form of (da) /da/ is (da)(small tu)(ta) /daQta/.

Here is an example of the past form of the copula:

Hiragana: (ki)(small yo)(u)(to)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(da)(small tu)(ta) (period)
Phonemes: kyo'utowa (space)syu'todaQta
Structure: noun
(Kyôto)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(was)
Meaning:Kyôto was capital.

Kyôto, a city 400 kilometers west to Tôkyô, was capital of Japan from 794 to 1192.


The polite form of (da) /da/ is (de)(su) /desu/. Its root is /des/ and the last /u/ is the suffix for the present form. Its inflection is almost the same as the politeness suffix (ma)(su) /masu/. So its past form is (de)(si)(ta) /desita/.

Hiragana: (to)(u)(ki)(small yo)(u)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(de)(su) (period)
Phonemes: toukyouwa (space)syu'todesu
Structure: noun
(Tôkyô)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(is)


Hiragana: (ki)(small yo)(u)(to)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(de)(si)(ta) (period)
Phonemes: kyo'utowa (space)syu'todesita
Structure: noun
(Kyôto)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(was)


To understand the irregularity of the inflection of the copula, its original form is useful. The copula (da) /da/ comes from an old style copula (de) (a)(ru) /de a'ru/, which is a combination of the postposition (de) /de/ and the existential verb (a)(ru) /a'ru/. The word (de) /de/ came from the ancient postposition (ni)(te) /nite/, but now it is considered a form of the copula, which uses the existential verb as an auxiliary verb just to give tense to a sentence.

Since the verb (a)(ru) /a'ru/ is regular, its inflection is easy to understand like these:

Hiragana: (to)(u)(ki)(small yo)(u)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(de) (a)(ru) (period)
Phonemes: toukyouwa (space)syu'tode (space)a'ru
Structure: noun
(Tôkyô)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(be)		auxiliary
verb
(present)


Hiragana: (ki)(small yo)(u)(to)(ha) (si)(small yu)(to)(de) (a)(small tu)(ta) (period)
Phonemes: kyo'utowa (space)syu'tode (space)a'Qta
Structure: noun
(Kyôto)		topic
marker		noun
(capital)		copula
(be)		auxiliary
verb
(past)

The old style copula (de) (a)(ru) /de a'ru/ is scarcely used in spoken Japanese, but it is still often used in written Japanese. Its polite forms are rarely used even in written Japanese.

To summarize, the ordinary copula and its polite form are derived as follows:

FormsThe original copulaThe contracted copula
Present
(de)(a)(ru)
de   a'ru
(da)
da
Past
(de)(a)(small tu)(ta)
de   a'Qta
(da)(small tu)(ta)
daQta
Polite present
(de)(a)(ri)(ma)(su)
de   arima'su
(de)(su)
desu
Polite past
(de)(a)(ri)(ma)(si)(ta)
de   arima'sita
(de)(si)(ta)
desita



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