Recognize a nominal predicate
Classical clauses can identify or classify something without a copula corresponding to modern 是. A final 也 is common in explanatory or identifying statements, but it is not itself an all-purpose verb “is”.
也
A reading procedure
- Find what is being identified.
- Find the noun phrase or description used to identify it.
- Separate the assertion from the final particle.
也 also occurs in other environments. Its presence alone does not prove a nominal sentence.
Compare
Search finds spelling; it does not automatically label every occurrence with this construction.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Evidence and further study
Linked passages below provide the primary-text evidence for these editorial examples. The readings are not borrowed from, or endorsed by, the further-study references.
Kanseki Repository · pinned primary text witnesses
Textual evidence. Individual examples link to exact source files and lines.
Edwin G. Pulleyblank · Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar
Further study: word order, predication, nominalization, negation and complex sentences. Book content is not reproduced.
Robert Eno · Introduction to Literary Chinese, Part I
Further study: an academic primer with annotated readings and exercises. Not imported.
Introduction to Classical Chinese · Schonebaum and contributors
Further study: function words and reading lessons. CC BY-NC-SA material is not imported into this dataset.
Thesaurus Linguae Sericae
Further research: contextual historical senses and syntactic analysis. No TLS annotation import in this release.
17 examples in context
所損益，可知也
What was reduced or added can be known.
所 takes the coordinated actions 損 and 益 into a noun-like expression. The historical discussion supplies whose changes are intended. 可知 is a modal predicate; the English passive “can be known” does not imply an overt passive marker in the source.
Check your reading · Does the English passive prove that a passive marker is written here?
No. The source has 可知 without an overt passive marker.
見義不為，無勇也
To see what is right and fail to do it is a lack of courage.
The first sequence supplies the conduct being judged. 無勇 is the assessment, followed by 也. 見 is the lexical verb “see” here, not a passive marker; 為 refers to doing what is right.
Check your reading · Is 見 a passive marker in this sentence?
No. It means seeing or recognizing what is right.
直不百步耳，是亦走也
It is merely not a hundred paces; this too is running away.
直…耳 restricts the distinction to the distance. 是 points back to the fifty-pace retreat, and 走 means running or fleeing in this context. Reading it as modern “walking” would spoil the analogy.
Check your reading · What does 走 mean in this context?
Running or fleeing, rather than ordinary modern walking.
養生喪死無憾，王道之始也
Supporting the living and mourning the dead without regret is the beginning of the kingly way.
The initial activities form the subject matter; 王道之始 supplies the identifying comment. 之 modifies 始 with 王道. Final 也 closes the explanation without functioning as a free-standing copula.
Check your reading · What noun is the head of 王道之始?
始.
吾所以有大患者，為吾有身也
The reason I have great troubles is that I have a body.
The 所以 expression establishes the reason to be explained; 為吾有身也 gives the explanation. The interpretation of 身 as body, embodied self, or personal existence affects the philosophy and should remain open to comparison.
Check your reading · Which part supplies the explanation rather than the topic to explain?
為吾有身也.
南冥者，天池也
As for the southern darkness, it is the pool of heaven.
者 marks the topic 南冥, and 天池 is the identifying comment closed by 也. This is a clear place to observe the frame before comparing other 者 uses, such as a predicate referring to a person.
Check your reading · Does 者 mean “person” here?
No. It marks the topic 南冥.
水淺而舟大也
The water is shallow while the boat is large.
而 connects two contrasting facts used as an explanation. The water-and-boat scenario supports the later wind-and-wing analogy. The analogy is a rhetorical relation, not an assertion that 舟 and 翼 share an etymology.
Check your reading · What relation connects the two facts here?
Their mismatch explains why the vessel cannot be supported.
名者，實之賓也
Name is the guest of reality.
者 establishes 名 as the topic; 實之賓 gives the metaphorical identifying comment. 之 links 實 to 賓. The host–guest image is an interpretation of priority within the dialogue, not a literal ontology supplied by the grammar.
Check your reading · What is the head of 實之賓?
賓.
非我而當者，吾師也
Someone who criticizes me and is right is my teacher.
非 functions as a predicate directed at 我; 者 gathers that description into a person-expression. 而當 limits the endorsement to criticism that is fitting. The sentence does not make every hostile critic a reliable teacher.
Check your reading · What qualification makes the critic a teacher?
當: the criticism must be fitting or correct.
夫樂者、樂也，人情之所必不免也
Music is joy: it is something human feelings cannot altogether escape.
The repeated written 樂 connects music with enjoyment in an explanatory assertion. 者 marks the topic and 也 closes the identification; 所 introduces what people do not avoid. Modern reading labels can help distinguish the senses, but do not recover the exact ancient sounds of this wordplay.
Check your reading · Why should the two written instances of 樂 not receive an identical mechanical gloss?
One names music and the other its relation to enjoyment in the argument.
人之性惡，其善者偽也
Human nature is bad; its goodness is deliberate human achievement.
其 resumes the human subject; 者 helps set off goodness as the topic of the second judgment. 偽 is read here as cultivated or deliberate activity, not simply deceit. The nature/activity distinction is disputed in scholarship; the contrast in this sentence must remain visible before comparing it with Mencius.
Check your reading · Why is translating 偽 as dishonesty misleading here?
The clause credits cultivated activity with goodness; it is distinguishing that activity from 性.
從道不從君，從義不從父，人之大行也
Following the way rather than the ruler, and what is right rather than one's father: these are great forms of conduct.
Repeated 從 makes the competing objects explicit. The final nominal judgment classifies these choices; it does not say that every command from a ruler or parent should be rejected. The contrast is between standards of justification when loyalties diverge.
Check your reading · What does the repetition of 從 make easier to compare?
The authority of a person with the normative standard that may qualify obedience.
二柄者，刑德也。何謂刑德？曰：殺戮之謂刑，慶賞之謂德。
The two handles are punishment and reward. What do these mean? Killing is called punishment; celebratory rewards are called beneficence.
The text supplies its own local definition of 德 through 慶賞. That administrative sense must not be replaced automatically by the virtue sense common elsewhere. The 何謂 question and following definitions are part of the argument, not a modern dictionary entry applying to every occurrence.
Check your reading · What local wording determines the sense of 德?
The explanation 慶賞之謂德 identifies it with rewards here.
非其身重於千鈞也，勢不便也
It is not that his body is heavier than a thousand jun; the configuration is unfavorable.
The passage describes a strongman who can lift a huge weight yet cannot lift himself. 非 rejects a proposed explanation, and the second 也 clause substitutes another. 勢 names the arrangement or position in this example, not simply personal strength.
Check your reading · Which explanation is rejected and which is proposed?
Body weight is rejected; an unfavorable configuration is proposed.
兵者，國之大事也
Military affairs are a matter of great consequence for the state.
者 marks the topic and the final 也 closes a nominal identification. 國之大事 assigns political weight to 兵; the following life-and-death contrasts explain why scrutiny is required. Reading 兵 only as an individual soldier would miss this framing.
Check your reading · What is being classified by the nominal predicate?
Military affairs as a consequential matter for the state.
不戰而屈人之兵，善之善者也
To bring another's army to submission without battle is the best form of excellence.
屈 takes 人之兵 as its object in a causative reading. 而 connects the absence of battle with the achieved result; it need not imply a temporal sequence. The sentence ranks strategies in a military argument and is not a categorical rejection of every use of force.
Check your reading · What does the object after 屈 show?
The action makes another's army submit rather than describing the speaker's own submission.
窈窕淑女，君子好逑
The graceful, good woman is a fine match for the gentleman.
逑 supplies the idea of a mate or match. The compact verse leaves the relation between the two noun phrases to be construed, so a modern copula in English is supplied. Do not treat the preface's political interpretation as if it were another line of this stanza.
Check your reading · Is an explicit word corresponding to English is written in this phrase?
No; it is supplied to express the inferred relation between the noun phrases.