Forming The Copulative
There are six basic rules, used in differing situations to form the most basic copulatives. The first two rules do not use any verbs (the zero copula) using only changes in tone and/or the copulative formative ke-. The other rules employ the irregular verb -le.
The rules may be classed into 3 categories (plain predication or zero copula, participial, past relative clause participial) and each category may be further divided into 2 groups (all persons with qualificatives and adverbs and 1st. and 2nd. persons substantives, versus 3rd. person substantives). Each rule further has its own unique negative.
| Type | All qual. & adv., 1st. & 2nd. subst. |
3rd. subst. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Rule 1 | Rule 2 | ||
| + | SC + CB | + | ke + CB | |
| – | ha + SC + CB | – | hase + CB | |
| Participial | Rule 3 | Rule 4 | ||
| + | SC + le and CB | + | e + le and CB | |
| – | SC + se and CB | – | e + se and CB | |
| Relative | Rule 5 | Rule 6 | ||
| + | RC + le + ng and CB | + | DE and e + le + ng and CB | |
| – | RC + se + ng and CB | – | DE and e + se + ng and CB | |
SC indicates the subjectival concord, CB is the copulative base, RC is the relative concord, and DE is the demonstrative element. This is one instance where the relative concords for the 1st. and 2nd. persons may be used.
Note that the participial sub-mood is the basis for all relative clause constructions (used in rules 3 to 6).
Read more about this topic: Sotho Parts Of Speech, Copulatives
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