Page 85 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

SENTENCES, PHRASES, AND TEXT CONSTRUCTION 71
words and phrases). Main fo-verbs are often considered to be a subset of linking verbs (see the next section).
Be-verbs
is
are
was
were
is/are was/were/been
can/will/may be
Nouns, Adjectives, OR Adverbs oftime/place a book (noun)
an important book (noun phrase) important (adjective)
highly important (adjective phrase)
yesterday/inJanuary (words and phrases of time) here/in the text/on the top (words and phrases of place)
thecase(nounphrase)
true/necessary (adjective)
on time/at the right place (adverb phrases)
Because sentences with be-verbs, are easy to construct, many NNS writers overuse them in their academic writing (Hinkel, 2002a). One of the most common structures that follows be is the prepositional phrase (a preposi- tion and a noun/noun phrase—e.g., in the lab, at the start).
The second most prevalent pattern is be-verbs with adjectives (also called predicative adjectives because they are a part of the sentence predicate). In some texts, predicative adjectives that follow be-verbs and linking verbs are also called subject complements because they describe (complete) the subject noun. (The function of adjectives is to describe nouns no matter whether
adjectives precede nouns or occur behind be-and linkingverbs.) A good (attributive adjective) book (noun) is ajoy.
A book is good (predicative adjective).
The student is very intelligent (predicative adjective phrase).
Linking Verbs
The most common linking verb, become, can be followed by nouns and ad- jectives, but not adverbs. However, most other types of linking verbs,
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such as seem/appear, get, prove, remain, sound, smell, and turn, rarely occur
with nouns. By far the most prevalent types of structures with these verbs include adjectives (e.g., get old/cold, seems small/large, proved boring/excit- ing). Another prevalent conversational pattern includes an insertion of the preposition like:
*Get is common only in conversational discourse.
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