Is it the same to say 'I am deaf' as 'I am deaf'?

PalmaWhen we think about verbs, we almost always think of those that describe actions, such as ‘sing’, ‘dance’, and ‘run’; processes, like ‘grow’ and ‘fall in love’, or states, like ‘know’ or ‘understand’. However, there are others that do not carry any implicit meaning, such as the verb ‘to be’. Let’s say we are with friends and decide to play the classic game of charades. When we read a verb similar to those in the first group on our slip of paper, we all breathe a sigh of relief: they are easily imitable verbs because a meaning can be extracted from them. Now, what happens when the word we draw is the verb ‘to be’? How can we represent verbs that do not express any action?

Yes, it’s true, perhaps you have thought that ‘to be’ does have meaning. In fact, in its first entry in the DIEC (Dictionary of the Catalan Language), it is defined as equivalent to ‘to exist’, ‘to have reality’, and ‘to take place as a fact’. But in this article, we are not interested in this meaning, but rather in that of the verb ‘to be’ in sentences like ‘The food was salty’ and ‘It’s already Saturday’, that is, in those cases where it functions as a copulative verb.

In Catalan, the verb ‘ser’ is considered the copula (from the Latin ‘cōpŭla’, ‘union’) of any copulative sentence. This means that ‘ser’ is a verb devoid of semantic load, whose function is reduced to providing the features of time, person, and number to the sentence and, therefore, establishing the relationship between the subject and the non-verbal predicate (popularly called ‘attribute’). If we pay attention to the example ‘The house is small’, we will realize that the presence or absence of the verb does not cause any change in the meaning of the sentence. This characteristic, typical of copulative verbs, is especially evident in languages like Russian, where the use of the copula in the present indicative is considered ungrammatical, and then we find sentences like ‘Ya rýsskij’, which in Catalan would be translated as ‘I (am) Russian’.

Aspectual or modal nuance

Besides the verb ‘ser’, in Catalan there are other verbs that can appear with non-verbal predicates, that is, that cannot select or condition sentential arguments or complements. These are verbs such as ‘estar’, ‘esdevenir’, ‘parèixer’ and ‘semblar’, called quasi-copulative verbs, because they implicitly carry an aspectual or modal nuance.

Among all the verbs included in the quasi-copulative group, the verb ‘estar’ is the one that requires more special attention, given that Catalan speakers often use the verb ‘estar’ in contexts of use where the norm dictates that ‘ser’ should be used.

The key to correctly using the two verbs is to take into account that ‘estar’ adds a nuance of duration, permanence, result, or fixation to the predication. Thus, generally speaking, if what is intended to be designated is an inherent property of the subject, we will use ‘ser’. However, if what is really to be highlighted is a transient or circumstantial characteristic of the subject, then we will use ‘estar’. It is not the same to say ‘La sopa és freda’ (The soup is cold) as ‘La sopa està freda’ (The soup is cold). While the first could refer to the typical summer gazpacho that we drink nice and cool, the second could refer to a noodle soup that has cooled down after waiting for all the guests to have their plate on the table.

It is important to consider that the use of ‘ser’ or ‘estar’ may depend on factors such as the animacy of the subject and the syntactic category of the attribute, in those copulative sentences where a characteristic or property of the subject is designated.

Here we will only deal with cases where the animated or inanimate nature of the subject influences the choice of verb, as these are the ones that generate the most difficulties. Even so, if we are clear that ‘ser’ is used to talk about inherent properties and ‘estar’ to refer to contingent properties, we should have no problem using them. Currently, however, adjectives with dual aspectual value have been increasing and hesitation between ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ is common with adjectives that traditionally went with ‘ser’ such as ‘sord’ (deaf), ‘cec’ (blind), ‘vell’ (old), ‘jove’ (young), ‘casat’ (married), and ‘solter’ (single) which only express a state in very specific cases. It is not the same to say ‘Som sord’ (I am deaf) as ‘Estic sord, perquè tenc un tap de cera’ (I am deaf because I have a wax plug).

When the subject is inanimate, the use of 'ser' or 'estar' also depends on whether what is to be expressed is an inherent property or a contingent property. But, unlike animate subjects, when the adjective expresses a state, the most traditional solution is 'ser'. This is the case with adjectives such as 'empty', 'full', 'humid', and 'clean'.

Copulative locatives

Finally, another class of equally problematic copulatives are those of location. In Catalan, the prototypical verb in these cases is ‘ser’, as it indicates simple location. On the other hand, ‘estar’ adds the nuance of duration, permanence, fixation, or previously mentioned result. However, in today's colloquial speech, ‘estar’ has become so generalized that it is used as an equivalent to ‘ser’, without taking into account the semantic differences that regulate the opposition between these two verbs.