27.1. A History of Copulative Verbs
27.1.1. What Is a Copula?
A copula is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement. A subject complement is a word or phrase that follows a linking verb (more specifically, the copula) and identifies or describes the subject. An example of a copula is the word "is" in the sentence "The grass is green".
In essence, a copular verb in a Romance language can be thought of as a verb for a state of being.
Originally, Classical Latin used several verbs, all of which contributed to copulative verbs in modern Romance languages in their own ways:
| Verb | Use(s) |
|---|---|
| Esse | 1. Existential (ex: There is/There are) 2. Possessive (ex: To have/To belong to) 3. Attributive (ex: I am, You are) 4. Locative: To be situated (ex: The book is on the table.) |
| Fierī | To become |
| Stāre | 1. To stand 2. To stay/To remain 3. Locative: To be situated (Medieval Latin) |
| Sedēre | To sit |
27.1.2. General Comparisons
Starting from Eastern Romance to the languages of the Iberian peninsula:
Romanian
Romanian has two copulative verbs of note: "a fi" and "a sta".
The evolutions from Latin are shown below.
- fieri → fiere → fire → *fir → fi
- stāre → sta
The verb "a fi" evolved from the verb "fieri", which meant "to become" in Latin. However, it is a suppletive verb in modern Romanian. Although it replaced "esse", and its evolved form "essere", "a fi" derives many of its forms from "esse". In effect, the two verbs had merged into one.
The verb "a sta" descends from "stāre". Similar to Italian, it conserves uses from Latin; such as the meanings of "to stay", "to stand" and "to reside".
Italo-Dalmatian (Italian, Neapolitan and Sicilian)
Italian conserves the original meanings of "esse" and "stāre". A small exception would be "stare" in a locative sense. In Standard Italian, the verb "essere" may be used for the position of an object in a place that is expected, where as "stare" may be used for the position of an object in a place where it is not usually found. In addition, Standard Italian also reserves the verb "stare" for certain adjectives, such as "attento", "bene", "male" and "comodo".
Neapolitan is different from other varieties of Italo-Dalmatian in how it uses its copulative verbs. The use of "stà" in Neapolitan independently obtained a locative sense, similar to Spanish. For example, "I am here" would be "I' sto ccà", similar to "Estoy aquí" in Spanish. To some extent, Neapolitan uses "stà" or "essere" to indicate the difference between a temporary state or permanent state, like in Spanish. However, this is not to the same extent. In comparison, Neapolitan is not as rigid, because some adjectives allow either verb with no change in meaning, such as "bello". To say "I am sad", some may say "Songo triste", using "essere", and some may say "Stongo triste", using "stà".
It is interesting to note that these uses did not evolve in Sicilian.
In general, Sicilian is similar to Italian. A small exception would be that Sicilian is more likely to use its cognate "stari" in the sense of "to reside", such as "I live in Sicily".
French
Modern French is notable for being a Romance language with only one notable copulative verb: être.
Observe the evolution below:
- esse → essere → *essre → estre
- stāre → *estare → estar → ester
- estre + ester → être
The modern verb "être" is a combination of both "estre" (from Latin "esse") and "ester" (from Latin "stāre"), but retains more conjugations from "estre". This fusion occurred because of similar phonetic evolutions, where the two verbs started to sound similar.
This being said, the verb "ester" does survive in certain situations. It survives in set phrases like "ester en justice". Aside from cases like these, the verbs have completely merged.
Occitano-Romance (Catalan and Occitan)
Similarly to French, Occitan merges "esse" and "stāre" into one verb. The form changes based on the dialect. In any case, it mostly takes from "esse".
Occitan: esse + stāre → ésser / èstre / èster / estar
In Catalan, these verbs remain distinct.
Catalan:
- esse -> éssere-> ésser (most standard form) / ser (borrowing) / esser (distantly)
- stāre -> *estare -> estar
Correspondingly to its position in the Romance continuum, Catalan serves as a transitional bridge between different languages. It has aspects in common with both Ibero-Romance languages (Spanish and Portuguese) and other Romance languages, such as Italian. "Estar" conserves the classical use of "to reside" or "to dwell" in the pronominal verb "estar-se".
Similarly to Ibero-Romance, Catalan uses "estar" to indicate a temporary state or characteristics of a subject. For example, "I am tired" is "Estic cansado".
Due to a combination of influence from Ibero-Romance, be it from historical language contact or modern bilingualism with Spanish, some dialects of Catalan may use "estar" differently. One example is the use of "estar" instead of "ser" in a locative sense. To say "I am here", some dialects say "Sóc aquí", whereas others say "Estic aquí", which is more similar to Ibero-Romance.
Ibero-Romance (Spanish and Portuguese)
Ibero-Romance languages are notable for having the most complex and rigid distinctions between their copulative verbs.
In both Spanish and Portuguese, the following evolutions occurred:
- stāre → *estare → estar
- sedēre → *seder → seer → ser
A significant difference between the evolution of "ser" in Ibero-Romance and other branches is that the modern verb "ser" developed from both the Latin verb "esse" and "sedēre". Due to certain phonetic evolutions, namely the loss of the consonant in the middle of the verb and the shift in stress to the penultimate vowels in Iberian infinitives, the verbs came to sound very similar.
In regards to "estar", to express the concept of "standing upright", the adverb "de pie" came into use, like in "estar de pie".
Despite the continued distinction, "esse" and "stāre" remained similar in some meanings. In general, this lead to a key difference between Ibero-Romance and other branches: the use of the modern verb "ser" for permanence or essence, and "estar" for temporary states.
For example, in Spanish, "Estoy triste" means "I am sad" as a temporary emotion. "Soy triste" means "I am sad" as an innate trait, describing the subject as pitiful or persistently sad. This concept is extensive to the point that some words take on different meanings depending on whether "estar" or "ser" is used, although not exactly in the same way between Spanish and Portuguese. For example, in Spanish, "Estoy listo" means "I am ready", but "Estoy listo" means "I am clever" or "I am smart".
It should be stated that, for the most part, the specific distinctions between "ser" and "estar" in Ibero-Romance languages are particular of these languages. Despite the mergers in French and Occitan, these distinct uses did not occur in languages like Italian or Romanian, or even originally in Classical Latin. Later, there will be practical examples illustrating the common characteristics and differences between these copulas in Neolatin.
Resultative copulas (Ex: In Italian "È rimasta incinta = "she became pregnant" (as a result)):
- Quedar (Spanish)
- Ficar (Portuguese)
- Rimanere (Italian)
- Remanere / Restare (Neolatin)
Adjusting states of being from the original verb "stare":
- Estar de pie (Spanish)
- Estar de pé
- Essere in piedi (Italian)
- Èssere en/de pède (Neolatin)