A sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. The verb phrase is built around a verb.
There are different kinds of verbs. Some take only a subject. They are intransitive verbs.
Look at these examples from the text in this unit
(1a) The grass withers.
(1b) The chameleon creeps from a brown rock on to a green leaf.
Notice that an intransitive verb can be followed by prepositional phrases that have an adverbial function, as in (1b). Such phrases that follow an intransitive verb are called its complements.
A kind of intransitive verb that links its subject to a complement is called a ‘linking verb’ or a copula. The most common copulas in English are be, become and seem. The copula be occurs very often in the text in this unit. Its complement may be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase.
Here are a few examples
• My hand is alive. (be+adjective)
• The novel is supremely important. (be+adjective phrase)
• You’re a novelist. (be+noun phrase)
• The novel is the book of life. (be+noun phrase)
Other examples of copulas from the text are given below
• It seems important
. • The Word becomes more and more boring.
Can you say what the category of the complement is, in the examples above?
The verb have is followed by a noun phrase. Find the noun phrases that follow have in the paragraph of the text that begins
“A ‘sports story must have…some competitive activity…” (In this example, have is followed by the noun phrase some competitive activity.)
Sentences with have do not usually have a passive form. But in general, verbs which take a noun phrase after them are transitive, and they have a passive form.
Look at the verbs in the paragraph following the paragraph you have just worked with. Find the noun phrases that follow the verbs take, place, involve, change and add. Notice that these verbs can all be passivized, and their objects can become subjects (these have been set in bold below). So that we can say Let the contents of any of these be taken and be placed against a background where a society significantly different from our own is involved and the nature of the story has not been changed—it has merely been added to.