 Besides syntactic categories, natural language displays particular types of expressions and constructions that appear to express metaphysical notions. Examples are of course the copula be, which conveys identity, predication, existence, and perhaps other related notions, modals that convey metaphysical modality (may, must, essential, the nature of), existence predicates that convey existence or ways of being (exist, occur, obtain)  (§1.2),  ontological dependence (which may be conveyed by have or the possessor construction), part-whole-related expressions (Vieu 2006), expressions of causation (make, cause) (Swanson 2012), and truth (Hinzen &amp; Wiltschko forthcoming, Moltmann 2021b). In addition, there are various nominal constructions that serve to denote entities of particular categories, perhaps introduced in particular construction-specific ways  (§3.1)