Copula verbs

Complex-transitive verbs
 subject + predicator + subject attribute.

S P SA (A)
John is fast (in the
game).
John is the runner (as usual).

Copula verbs (verbs used in the being pattern)

appear grow seem look
be make smell sound
become prove taste
feel remain turn

 The meaning of such a verb is merely to point out a link

between the first participant and an attribute or a
category
 A copula (also called a linking verb) is neither
transitive nor intransitive: be, seem, become

a. Maggie seems content.

b. Your mum appears upset.
c. The world is flat
d. This problem looms large.
e. The disease proved incurable.
f. She became a lawyer.
g. She turned into a beautiful woman.
 A copula can never stand alone in the
predicate; it must be followed by another
structure, a complement. One cannot say
*Betty seems, *Those buildings are, or *That
man became.
 The obligatory structure after a copula is
called a subject complement.
 Subject complements can be nouns.
I am a teacher. (predicate nominative)
 Subject complements can also be
adjectives.
Some politicians are corrupt
 Such adjectives are called
predicate adjectives.
Uncle Horace seems angry.
 Be is the only copula that can take an adverb
of location as its complement
Stu is in the basement; Tilly is on the golf
course.
 *Stu seems in the basement is
ungrammatical.
 Other copulas can co-occur with an adverb
of location only when the adverb is preceded
by a predicate adjective.
Tommy seems unhappy in that school.
 Copulas involving sensory perception can
take as a subject complement a prepositional
phrase headed by the preposition like—This
liquid smells like turpentine; That cloth
looks like silk.
 Each sensory perception has a copula
associated with it.
 In the case of copulas, the sensory
perception is not that of the subject
of the sentence, but rather that of
the speaker.
 These copulas must be followed by an
adjective, a prepositional phrase with
the preposition like, or, on rare
occasions, a noun phrase.
The record sounds scratched. / That
animal sounds like an elk.
Margie looks terrible. / She looks a
mess. / That cloth looks like silk.
Your cabin smells musty. / This room
smells like a barn.
This meat tastes rancid. / This squid
tastes like rubber.
This cloth feels rough. / This lump feels
like a cyst.
 This room smells. (covert complement)
 speaker—That record sounds scratched
[assumed to me].
 The room smelled musty to Richard.
 The meat tasted rancid to the cook.
 Becky sounded sick to her mother.
 Miriam could taste the spices in the soup;
The soup tasted spicy to Miriam.

While transitive verbs can have experiencer

subjects, copulas cannot; when the verb is a
copula, the experiencer must be expressed
by an overt or covert prepositional phrase.
 Copula vs. full verbs
You sound sick.
The siren sounded.
Your perfume smells beautiful.
She opened the bottle and smelled the
perfume.
He looked devastated.
He looked across the bridge in despair.

 What is the test?

 Seem, appear, remain: Joyce seems happy;
Tom appears satisfied. They remained silent.
 These copulas underscore the fact that the
state is apparent, but not necessarily real.
The perception is assumed to be that of the
speaker—Joyce seems happy [to me], unless
that assumption is explicitly canceled, as in
Joyce seems happy to Bill.
 Seem and appear are usually followed by
adjectives, although seem can also be
followed by the preposition like—She seems
like a nice person; This seems like the only
alternative.
 Copula vs. full verbs

Two man appeared from around the corner.

They appeared upset about something.
Everybody remained in the room.
They remained calm and silent.

 What is the test?

 Some copulas suggest a change in the state
of the subject. What are they followed by?
The milk turned sour yesterday.
My husband is going bald.
My grandparents grew old last year.
She became irate. Henry gets angry easily.
Michelle became an architect.
 Why are *He turned tall or *The baby turned
fat unacceptable? (rapid change)
 turn into (two word copula) - The frog
turned into a prince; She turned into a
lovely woman.
I am angry. a state
Those buildings are ugly.
Gene is an engineer. an equal sign
Mary was in the garden. locator
Her shoes were on the floor.
I am at the store.
Becky was an hour late. Arrive
We were on time.
 There is a small class of highly restricted
copulas that co-occur with a very limited
number of subject complements.

The problems loomed large.

The children fell silent/asleep/ill.
The task proved difficult/ impossible/
insurmountable.
The kids ran wild. (lack of supervision)
 These verbs are homophonous with other
intransitive or transitive verbs, i.e.,they are
pronounced in the same way. But the
meanings of the copulas are rather different
from those of their transitive or intransitive
counterparts.
 fall = become, and like become it
communicates a change of state, but with
negative overtones: He fell sick/ She fell
into despair/ I feel down
 Copula loom is almost always followed by
large.
 Copula run suggests lack of supervision. The
children ran wild is closer to The children
were wild than The children ran wildly.
 Copula prove is closely related to its
transitive counterpart: The job proved
impossible, something demonstrates that the
job is impossible
 The wind sounds loud.
 This tastes awful.
 The task looked impossible to
Joseph.
 This plaster feels cracked.
 The fish smelled rotten to the
customer.
 Maggie seems content.
 Your mom appears upset.
 The world is flat.
 This problem looms large.
 The disease proved incurable.
 It turned cold last night.
 Wally got mad.
 She became an attorney.
 They grew old.
 The prince turned into a frog.
 The passengers fell ill.
 The passengers fell ill.
 The animals ran impatient.
 The job proved impossible.
 The news turned fake.
 The copula in a sentence dictates the
semantics of the subject complement.
 The subject complement following a stative
copula will reflect a state - The baby is fat;
This milk smells sour.
 A subject complement that follows a change
of state copula expresses the resultant
state - The baby became fat; The milk
turned sour.
 Helena sounds angry. Helena grew angry.

 Vera was a doctor. Vera became a

doctor.

 That music seems loud. The music got loud.

 The weather looks bad. The weather turned
bad.
appear grow look
be make sound
fall get loom
become prove taste
feel remain turn
smell seem run

Which copula verbs take stative complements,

which ones take resultive complements?
 What are copula verbs followed by?
 Which copula verb can take an adverb of location
as complement?
 What are sensory copula verbs followed by?
 Whose is the perception in sentences with
sensory copula verbs?
 How can we show that it is not our perception?
 How can appear, remain, fall, run, loom be
ambiguous?
 Why are these not acceptable: He turned old, He
fell happy
 There is a small set of verbs in English that
can be followed by both a direct object and
an object complement. Object complements
are adjectives or noun phrases that describe
or refer back to the direct object.
I consider him immoral.
I consider him an idiot.
 Object complements can be stative,
Gisela found the conversation dull;
Wayne considered my candidate a loser.
 or resultative. In sentences containing
resultative object complements, the subject
actually causes the direct object to undergo
a change, the result of which is then
reflected in the object complement –
Pierre painted his room purple;
They appointed Sarah treasurer.
 Dale called her boss a fool.
 The kids considered Lena crabby.
 I like my coffee black.
 He wanted his steak rare.
 I prefer my eggs sunny side up.
 She found the concert tedious.
 The boss rated her performance excellent.
 They deemed the school suitable.
 The detective proved Dick innocent.
 Annie colored the sky orange.
 They spoil their kids rotten.
 She made Lionel a supervisor.
 He tied the rope tighter.
 They elected her president.
 My sister named her baby Hrothgar.
 They christened the ship the Titanic.
 The citizens proclaimed him king.
 I now pronounce you husband and wife.
 She hammered the metal flat.
 Many of the verbs listed above are truly
complex transitive in that they require either
an overt or covert object complement to
maintain their original meaning.
*The citizens proclaimed him
*I now pronounce you,
*They deemed the school,
 In each of the examples below, the object
complement is required to retain the original
meaning of the complex transitive verb.
Consider means something very different in
The kids considered Lena
The kids considered Lena crabby
Found means something different in
She found the concert
She found the concert tedious.
 In sentences like the ones below there must
be a covert object complement that can be
understood from the context.
They christened the ship
They elected her
The teacher appointed Sarah
 Some verbs are basically monotransitive verbs that
can be used in complex transitive constructions.
They spoil their kids
He tied the rope
are perfectly grammatical without object complements.
 This pattern is especially common when the object
complement describes a result—
He wiped the table clean; She drained the glass dry
We painted the barn green; He beat his opponent bloody
 The object complement can be omitted without
doing violence to meaning or grammar.
 appoint verbs—crown ,elect, ordain,
proclaim, designate
 dub verbs—baptize, call, christen, dub,
brand, label, pronounce
 declare verbs—find, judge, prove, declare,
rate, deem
 Since both complex transitive verbs and
ditransitive verbs allow the verb to be
followed by two noun phrases, there is
potential for ambiguity. A number of classic
bad jokes exploit this potential:
"Make me a milkshake.” "Zap, you're a
milkshake!"
"Call me a cab." "Okay. You're a cab."
 Intransitive: Subject +Verb
 Monotransitive: Subject + Verb + Direct
Object
 Ditransitive: Subject + Verb + Indirect
Object + Direct Object
 Copula: Subject + Verb + Subject
Complement
 Complex Transitive: Subject + Verb +
Direct Object + Object Complement
 Prototypical and non-prototypical
 She was called Lilly.
 It was John who told me about the
auction.
 There is a strange man in the corridor.
 It was obvious that he would win the
job.
 It was on Monday that I received the
message.
(1) He didn’t feel very confident.
(2) Put the book in my pigeonhole.
(3) The horse galloped to the Hittites’ capital,
Hattusa.
(4) Sally laughed herself silly.
(5) They carried the piano to Tom’s.
(6) The steward felt a violent pain in his chest.
(7) This book smells old.
(8) She was sitting on a rickety chair.
(9) Who did Jack relate the news to?
(10) He rocked the baby to sleep.
(11) Tom raked the yard for the neighbours.
(12) The prince turned into a frog.
(13) They spared him the details.
(14) The dog tore up the newspaper.
(15) This plaster feels cracked.
(16) They named their baby Sarah.
(17) Tom hung the clothes outside.
(18) He baked his dad a cake.
(19) The book lay on the table.
(20) They delivered the goods to the shop.
(21) He limped out of the room.
(1) John loaded the truck with hay.
(2) John loaded the hay onto the truck.
(3) I saw Tom at the party.
(4) The climber reached the summit of the mountain.
(5) They cut a cave in the hill.
(6) The news about Jesse consoled me.
(7) I dropped my favourite vase accidentally.
(8) Two students walked out on me.
(9) I wrote a letter for her.
(10) Will you smell the milk to see if it is sour?
(11) He walked out of the room.
(12) The swing dropped to the ground.
(13) The news alarmed us.
(14) The room smelled musty.
(15) She mowed the lawn for me.
(16) She ran out of her room.
(17) She swam the English Channel.
(18) The police suspected him of committing the
crime.
(19) This shoe hurts my foot.
(20) We carried the couch up to Tom’s flat.