page_title: Equative
section_title: DP(DP(CP))
hierarchical_section_title: Equative / Non-copular equative constructions / Okanagan Salish / DP(DP(CP))
caption_attribution_description: English: Trees
context_page_description: The term equative is used in linguistics to refer to constructions where two entities are equated with each other. For example, the sentence Susan is our president, equates two entities "Susan" and "our president". In English, equatives are typically expressed using a copular verb such as "be", although this is not the only use of this verb. Equatives can be contrasted with predicative constructions where one entity is identified as a member of a set, such as Susan is a president.
  Different world languages approach equatives in different ways. The major difference between languages is whether or not they use a copular verb or a non-verbal element to equate the two expressions.
  The term equative is also sometimes applied to comparative-like constructions in which the degrees compared are identical rather than distinct: e.g., John is as stupid as he is fat; some languages have a separate equative case.
context_section_description: Nsyilxcən equatives can also involve relative clause modification.
  The bracketed, relative clause "iʔ wíkən" ‘that I saw’ restricts the bird under discussion in (36a), and the nominalized relative clause "[iʔ] isck’ʷúl" ‘the (one) that I made’ restricts the type of shirt under discussion in (36b).  
  For Nsyilxcən, a relative clause is not identifiable by special inflectional morphology on the clausal modifier, but instead by an "iʔ" determiner and/or "t" marker which precede the modifying head. Relative clause modification can be either head final or head initial.
  Salish relative clauses can be analyzed based not only on relative head-modifier ordering, but also on whether or not a particle introduces both the head and modifier.
caption: Head initial relative clause
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