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Fri 4 Mar, 2005 05:35 pm
I have been searching using Google and other search engines trying to find a complete list of linking verbs, also know as copular verbs. I am saying "complete" list because I read they are a closed set of words. This is the list of words I have been able to build from using the Internet:
"be (all forms)"
"act,appear,become,fall,feel,get,grow,keep,lie,look,prove,remain,run"
"seem,smell,sound,stay,taste,turn"
These are other ones I am not sure of:
"continue,evolve,go,hear,make,resemble,sit,stand,wax"
"chance,savor,say,show"
"plead, came,talk"
Is this the complete list?
Where can I find it, if it is not?
Example sentence usage:
The man plead guilty.
The prediction came true.
She talks crazy.
She talks funny.
Thank you for any help.
StillLearning,
A linking verb is defined by context. In other words, a regular verb can be used AS a linking verb. Technically, you might argue that any set of words is a finite one...but for this reason it doesn't look like this is a small, easily defineable set of words.
Also, it may look like a linking verb, but it might actually be an adjective being used as an adverb, in colloquial speech, which is the case in "she talks crazy" and "she talks funny," because the adjectives describe the way she talks and not the way she is. I'm not sure about "came true" either - I think that's a idiom. You might say "became true" in a linking context, but that's not the sense of a prediction "coming true," as it implies that it was at one time false.
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