There is a particular class of verbs, sometimes known as intensive verbs, for which the concept of the verb as relater of participants is less apt. In a sentence like The dog is friendly, the dog is certainly a participant in a situation, but the same is not true of friendly. It seems more apt to view be friendly in its entirety as a kind of one-place ‘verb’, although it is made up of the verb be plus an adjective phrase (see the predicative function of adjectives in Chapter 4, p. 54). The same view could be taken of sentences like The dog is a good companion where be a good companion is made up of be plus a noun phrase. It seems unsatisfactory to view the dog and a good companion as distinct participants in a situation of ‘being’; the complement in this case denotes a characterization of the subject, not a separate participant. The most common verb that has the property of linking a participant (the subject) with a characterizing complement is be. But other verbs are also employed, such as those in italics in the following sentences: The dog appears friendly The leaves turned brown The wind became a hurricane
The farmyard looks dirty