Page 206 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

192 CHAPTER 8
of formal written discourse in various non-Anglo-American rhetorical tra- ditions, seem to be distracting. See chap. 6 on pronoun functions and uses.)
LINKING (BEING/BECOMING)VERBS
Linking verbs refer to a syntactic "link" that exists between the subject on the left-hand side of the verb phrase and the subject complement on the right-hand side of the verb (see also chap. 3):
Deviance is_universal; however,eachsociety has a different view of what is_deviant, and it changesfrom generation to generation. Even when it might appear that almost allsocietiesagreeonsomegeneralcategoryofactionasdeviant...,careful examination willshowthattheydiffer intheirdefinitions ofwhatspecific actsaretobeincludedinthe category. (Charon, 1999, p. 145)
Symbols are the basicsfor human thinking, and thinking in turn is_basic to what we do in situations (Charon, 1999, p. 173)
In these texts, the subject deviance is linked to the adjectives universal and deviant or the subject it is connected to the complement clause that all societies agree on some general category of action as deviant. Similarly, the noun symbols is linked to the complement phrase thebasicsfor human thinking, and thinking is linked to basic to what we do in situations. In many cases, the function of the verb becan be taught as subject approximately equal to (~) or directly refer- ring to the complement. For example:
Jane istall (i.e., tall refers directly to Jane). One ofJane's characteristics (*) tall.
John is a student (i.e., a student directly refers to John). One of John's characteristics (~)student.
Symbols are basics for human thinking (i.e., symbols [~] basics for human thinking, and vice versa).
Although the fact that linking verbs are not very numerous in English, they are by far more predominant in academic text than in any other genre (Biber et al., 1999).
Highly Common Academic Linking Verbs
appear become keep remain stay
be grow prove seem turn out
TLFeBOOK