Herb,

We're getting into hairsplitting here, so I ask the forgiveness of those 
on the list who lose us here in the ether ...

I guess we'd need to agree on a def. of "action" and "transitivity". 
Linking verbs are, at best, processes rather than actions ("become" is 
certainly a process, but not quite something undertaken by an agent, 
which is how I view an action).

There is an old paper by Hopper & Thompson called "Transitivity in 
Grammar and Discourse" which makes good arguments for the use of this 
property for discourse rather than semantic purposes. I don't remember 
their arguments, but it is a very interesting paper.

In any case, whatever a linking verb portrays, it definitely "affects" 
only the subject (in the sense that it links the subj. to the 
complement). This is short of the usual understanding of "affects".

Maybe the best way to say it is to say that "become" is definitely NOT a 
transitive verb, at least by non-Hallidayan definitions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
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http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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