dey, be, na and the zero copula #

dey #

The term dey in Naija performs two primary roles. The first is that of a copula. In these instances, dey is annotated as a verb and is connected to its complement with a comp:pred relation, as in the examples below.

This word is also used as an auxiliary verb which marks the imperfective aspect. In these cases, dey is annotated as an auxiliary and is connected to the following verb with a comp:aux relation.

be and na #

In addition to dey, Naija contains two other words that can function as copulas: be and na. Like dey, be, is annotated as a verb, and is connected to the subject via a subj relationship and to the predicate via the comp:pred relationship. We also treat na in a similar fashion, though it is tagged as a particle rather than a verb.

Zero copula #

However, the copula is not always needed to link subjects to their predicates. In cases where no copula is present, the predicate is connected to its subject via a subj relationship.