An ELT Glossary Copulative verbs

• Definition : A copulative verb is a verb followed by a complement (adjective or noun phrase) which can be "equated" to the subject of the sentence. For example : be, become, get, grow, seem, appear, look, sound, taste, feel, smell, prove, remain, stay, resemble, turn

• Examples :  

        John is / became an architect  (John = an architect)
        Paula seemed / appeared / sounded /grew angry (Paula = angry)
        The roses smell / look  wonderful. ( The roses = wonderful)
        The hypothesis proved wrong. (the hypothesis = wrong)

In The Grammar of Contemporary English, Quirk et al. divide copulative verbs into two types :

a) Current copulatives express a state : be (happy) / seem (afraid) / stay (calm)                etc

b) Resulting copulatives indicate that the complement is a result of the event or                 process described by the verb :   The lights turned green  / They  grew tired  / He got         angry.

The verb be is often referred to as "the" copula in English. In many languages it is dropped in the present tense (eg Russian, Hungarian, Arabic) causing problems for speakers of those languages learning English. Other languages have more than one equivalent for be -  eg Italian essere/stare.


NB : It would be better to say that these verbs can be used copulatively rather than that they "are" copulative. They may also be used in other ways. For example, in the following sentences the verbs are used transitively (ie followed by an object) :

Paula smelt the roses.   /  David tasted the soup.

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Prepositional Verbs and Verbs with Prepositional Phrases Whats the Difference

First of all, whats a prepositional verb? A prepositional verb is a verb followed by a preposition, where the meaning is dependent on the combination of both items. For example :

Hes looking after the children today.
Hes looking for a new secretary.
Hes looking into the problem.


In none of these sentences does it make sense to ask What does "look" mean? On its own, it means nothing. The meaning is formed through the combination of the verb and preposition (look after = take care of; look for = try to find; look into = investigate).

So, if you change the preposition in any of these sentences then the meaning of the whole verb changes. 

Now consider the following sentences :

He looked into the box, but couldnt find anything.
He looked behind the box, but couldnt find anything.
He looked under the box, but couldnt find anything.

Here look is not a prepositional verb. Its an ordinary verb with its own meaning - look = direct your gaze. And this doesnt change regardless of what preposition is used. The preposition simply introduces a prepositional phrase telling us the direction of the gaze, which could be any direction at all. 
In addition, the prepositional phrase is an optional component  : He looked, but couldnt find anything. Thats not true of the sentences with prepositional verbs.

So - not every verb which happens to be followed by a preposition is a prepositional verb. Test yourself to see if youve understood : which of the following are prepositional verbs (answers below).


1. It took me ages to get over the flu.
2. We had trouble getting into the house.
3. I ran into David in the market.
4. She ran round the park.
5. He really takes after his father.

Not every verb + preposition combination is quite as clear cut as this. There are some cases where the preposition is not totally interchangeable, but on the other hand does not alter the meaning of the verb. For example :

He applied for the job.

Can you change the preposition here? Obviously, if you want to continue the sentence with the job, then no. The preposition is dependent on the verb - it doesnt have an independent meaning - and for this reason this sort of combination is generally classed as a prepositional verb (see eg Leech and Svartvik 1975). But consider the following :

He applied to IBM, but didnt get an interview.
He applied several times, but didnt get an interview.

Whether apply is used with a different preposition, or with no preposition at all, the meaning of the verb remains the same - and as we saw above, that cant happen with our "pure" prepositional verbs. Id therefore argue that these verbs fall into the category of verb + prepositional phrase, rather than of prepositional verbs.


Reference
Leech, G and Svartvik, J (1975)  A Communicative Grammar of English,  Longman

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Multiword Verbs

Answers : 1/3/5 = Prepositional verbs 

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An ELT Glossary Delexicalised verbs

Definition : A verb used with a noun phrase with the general meaning of "perform the action indicated by the noun".

Examples :  have, take, make and do in the following sentences :

• She had lunch
• We took a break
• I made a mistake
• He did the shopping

Extra information

Many of these verbs can also be used with lexical meaning :

have = possess : She has a lovely house.

take = seize hold of : She took a book off the shelf

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