Copularlike

Copularlike is a term used in linguistic description to refer to predicates that function like a copula in linking the subject of a sentence to a predicative complement. While canonical copulas such as the English be are central in many languages, copularlike predicates include a broader set of verbs and even adjectives that can occupy the same linking position in predicative constructions.

These predicates typically express a state, property, or change of state rather than an action. They can take predicative complements that are adjectives (The soup tastes delicious), nouns (The plan remains viable), or prepositional phrases (The night grew quiet). Some verbs that also carry action senses in other contexts—such as seem, become, look, feel, and smell—can function copularly when they link to a predicative complement.

In English, copularlike predicates are often analyzed as part of predicative constructions alongside the canonical be, especially in tense and aspect contexts; in languages with richer morphology, they may use different copulas or allow an overt copula only in certain tenses. In some languages, predicative linking occurs without an overt copula in the present tense, a phenomenon known as zero-copula.

Typologically, studying copularlike predicates helps explain how languages encode states, properties, and changes of state, and how predicative complements are distributed across verb classes. The category overlaps with predicative adjectives, small clauses, and resultative constructions.