SCopula{N/Adj} pattern of western Saga dialect

(1) hsiaohai shi buliangshaonian.

child copula yankee

`The child is a yankee.’ [i]

(2) hsiaohai cengjing shi buliangshaonian.

child was yankee

`The child once was a yankee.’

*If we add ‘cengjing’, it mean it once was, but not anymore now.

In Chinese, there is no exact ways to express copula in past tenses.

(3) hsiaohai jianghui shi buliangshaonian.

child will be yankee

`The child will be a yankee.’

(4) fan hen hao chi.

rice is delicious

`The rice is delicious.’

(5) fan cengjing hen hao chi.

rice was delicious

`The rice was delicious.’

*If we add ‘cengjing’, it mean it once was, but not anymore now.

In Chinese, there is no exact ways to express copula in past tenses.

(6) fan hui bian haochi

rice will become delicious

`The rice will be delicious.’

(7) hsiaohai hen piaoliang.

child is pretty

`The child is pretty.’

(8) hsiaohai cengjing hen piaoliang.

child was pretty

`The child was pretty.’

*If we add ‘cengjing’, it mean it once was, but not anymore now.

In Chinese, there is no exact ways to express copula in past tenses.

(9) hsiaohai hui bain piaoliang.

child will be pretty

`The child will be pretty.’

If you change ‘‘shi’’ in the first sentence into ‘‘hen’’, it means that the child is like a yankee. The noun ‘‘buliangshaonian’’ somehow become like an adjective to describe what kind of child he is.

There is no other word order grammatical sentence except for (1)-(9). You cannot change the order of the noun at the subject and the predicative noun.

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