ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for a unitary characterization of the verb bod in Welsh. Just as there is only one be, there is only one bod, occurring in predicational, specificational, identificational and equative constructions. The chapter aims to characterize the basic syntax and semantics of mae. Mae is the form used in ordinary predicational sentences that assert the existence of a relation between an object and a property or concept. The relation between the nominal argument and its predicate in the mae-construction is mediated by an explicit marker that, in some cases, may be identified as a locative or temporal preposition. The characterization of mae as "augmented" bod immediately raises the following questions. What is the derivational history of this form? In what type of configuration is it inserted? What is the structural origin of the locative clitic it incorporates? The answer to these questions largely depends on the position one adopts concerning the interaction between morphology and syntax.
