Bibhuti Bhusan Mahapatra, CIEFL, Hyderabad
ODia has four copulas - an `equative', an `existential', a past tense copula, and a present tense copula. The author discusses the factor that condition the appearance of one of these copulas over another. He argues that it is not the structural configuration alone which predicts the choice of a copula in a copular sentence, the time reference of the sentence also plays a role.