今は忙しいのか － Silently implied linking verb?

[milkmanjack]

I was just going over the usage of の as an explanatory device. I learned that you can say 今は忙しいのか？ "(You are) busy now?" to ask for an explanation, which I suppose is just a softer form of asking if something is a certain way. However, I also know that だ cannot be used when asking a question since it's declarative. Does this mean that this sentence is silently implying a non-declarative form of the copula? です for example?

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been reading Japanese for a little while who pretty much says he doesn't care about grammar, and he was telling me that "it doesn't imply a verb," even though I don't see how it can't be implying one. The only way he can explain the meaning of the sentence is by attaching "are," which means I'm pretty much sure some form of the copula is being assumed at some level.

Thanks for your time! Sorry for such simple questions!

 

[Mike Cash]

You're right. Your friend is a self-deluding idjit.

 

[Toritoribe]

Purely grammatically, です in 今は忙しいんですか？ is not a copula but the non-conjugated polite suffix as same as です in 今は忙しいです.

 

[milkmanjack]

Purely grammatically, です in 今は忙しいんですか？ is not a copula but the non-conjugated polite suffix as same as です in 今は忙しいです.

忙しい is just an adjective though, isn't it? By itself, shouldn't it have no relation to 今 unless the linking verb です is used for this purpose?

今は (talking about "now") 忙しい (busy) の (explanatory tone) です (links "now" to "busy" -- now = busy) か (indicates the question)。

Without a verb, doesn't the sentence just become "now busy?" which really doesn't mean anything by itself? I can understand the principle that you don't need to state the verb if the context makes it clear, but the verb is still there, right? Just, not being spoken.

 

[Toritoribe]

Adjectives can be the predicate just by themselves without any verbs in Japanese.

です in 忙しいです provides only the politeness tone. It doesn't have any tense, or the difference between the negative and positive.

忙しいです(present positive)
忙しくないです(present negative)
忙しかったです(past positive)
忙しくなかったです(past negative)

As you can see, です is never conjugated.

 

[milkmanjack]

Adjectives can be the predicate just by themselves without any verbs in Japanese.

To be honest, I never actually thought about using conjugated forms of adjectives with conjugated forms of the copula as being problematic, but now I see what you mean.

Does that mean there is a problem with saying "今は忙しいだ", since だ has to predicate the sentence, and 忙しい is doing that job already?

 

[Toritoribe]

Oh sorry, I meant copula and not verb in my previous post.
As for i-adjectives, yes. However, だ/です in na-adjectives is a copula.

静かです(present positive)
静かでした(present negative)
静かではありません(past positive)
静かではありませんでした(past negative)