Identify the intransitive verbs and the copulas in the examples below, from the text in this unit. Say what the category of the complement is. You can work in pairs or groups and discuss the reasons for your analysis.

• I am a thief and a murderer.

• Right and wrong is an instinct.

• The flower fades.

• I am a very curious assembly of incongruous parts.

• The bud opens.

• The Word shall stand forever.

• It is a funny sort of superstition.

• You’re a philosopher.

• Nothing is important.

• The whole is greater than the part.

• I am a man, and alive.

• I am greater than anything that is merely a part of me.

• The novel is the book of life.

Given below are a few roots from Latin. Make a list of the words that can be derived from them

mens (mind) corpus(body) sanare (to heal)

Grammar: Some Verb Classes

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, become and seem.

The copula be occurred 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?

Identify other sentences from the text with intransitive verbs and copulas.

Spelling and Pronunciation

Let us look at the following letter combinations and the sounds they represent

• ch

• gh

ch is used for the sounds /k/ as in ‘character’, / / as in ‘chart’,

or/ / as in ‘champagne’.

Word initial position

While ‘ch’ is pronounced / / in most words, it is pronounced /k/ in many others. Generally words with Latin or Greek origins are pronounced/k/. Words of French origin are pronounced / /. Words beginning with ‘ch’, followed by a consonant, are always pronounced /k/, for example chlorine, chrysanthemum, Christian, etc.

Word medial position

Word final position

‘Ch’ is not pronounced in ‘schism’ but pronounced as /k/ in ‘schizophrenia’. gh is pronounced /g/ as well as /f/ and sometimes not pronounced at all. In the initial position it is always pronounced /g/. In the medial and final positions, it may be /f/ or silent.

Look for other words with ‘ch’, ‘gh’ letter combinations and guess how they are pronounced.