Given an English sentence composed of a subject, its complement, and a copula (also called a linking verb), the question of choosing a right copula has been, from the standpoint of traditional grammar, a matter of idiomaticity rather than one of analysis and comprehension. This paper, under the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG) (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2000, 2002), semantically analyzes the underlying mechanism in our brain which is supposed to operate in determining an appropriate copula. We will first consider two processes with regard to the choice of a subject and its complement: the narrowing-down of encyclopedic knowledge and the acting area of a subject for choosing its complements. After this pairing process between a subject and its complement, this paper proposes three cognitive parameters concerned with the right choice of a copula between the two selected items. Whether the chosen copula is appropriate or not will be filtered by restorability, desirability, and perfectiveness. By proposing and explaining those three cognitive parameters, this paper suggests that English copulas should also be learned by understanding the formation of meaning mechanism by us human beings' mental activities.

• Kwanghee Lee(Hanyang University)