copula before verbs or adjectives, thus (I am a student) but (I [am] smart). The topic marker may appear before an adjective to emphasize the subject, for example (As for me, I am smart). Many prepositions in Vietnamese originated as verbs and continue to function as verbs in sentences that would use a copula in English. For example, in (I am at home), the word may be analyzed as either "to be at" or simply "at". See also Turkish copula Zero copula in Hungarian Double copula or copula duplication; used in some styles of English Pro-drop languages, in which a subject pronoun is commonly omitted or implied References Literature Wolfram, Walter (1969) A Sociolinguistic Description of Detroit Negro Speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics p. 165-179 Nonstandard English grammar Verb types Zero (linguistics) br:Verb-stagañ mann he:אוגד#העדר אוגד