The cross-linguistic divergence of copula constructions does not necessarily imply that there is no universal structure for the constructions. Since the introduction of the notion, "small clause", the degree of categorial differentiation for copulas found in many languages has no longer been a bothersome phenomenon for linguists. Some recent works on the copula structure based on Merge theory claim that one of the pair {XP, YP} must move to satisfy the canonical order of the construction in the spirit of LCA. This paper attempts to explain how we can choose the one from the pair that must escape from the first Merged structure. Under the assumptions of Multiple Membrane Hypothesis (Im 2013), and employing the cartographical order of functional categories (Rizzi 1997, Cinque 1999, Starke 2001, 2006, among others), I argue that the syntactic object left in small clause has its own intrinsic [Focus] feature that induces the VP-internal location of the object at the interfaces. The morpho-phonemic realization of √BE is followed to meet the legibility condition at the interfaces.

• Chegyong Im(Daegu Arts University)