Johanna,
In general, I wouldn't argue with your position, especially as regards a
fairly introductory or school based grammar. But we do, in fact, play
roles all the time as teacher, husband, President, friend, and so on,
and I do think this is very much what is meant by linking verbs. To see
that I am being a teacher is not the same as saying the teacher is me.
Assigning things to categories is also an active process, and it is a
different kind of meaning to say that X is a member of a category than
it is to say a member of a category is X. I like Halliday's approach
mainly because it got me thinking about those kinds of meanings. If it
doesn't work for you, there's no harm done. Active versus passive may
indeed stretch those catgories too far. I brought it up in response to
Herb's comment, to explain that there might be some sense in the
distinction worth thinking about.

Craig

Johanna Rubba wrote:

> I agree with those who are attributing the difference between 'Sally
> is my friend' and 'My friend is Sally' as being a matter of focus and
> information structure. I'm sure that studying the contexts in which
> each type appears would confirm this.
>
> I dislike bringing terms like active and passive into the discussion
> of linking verbs. Introducing new terms is burdensome, but using
> familiar ones in ways few others use them muddies the waters.
> Assigning something to a category is what the speaker is doing, not
> what the subject of the sentence is doing. The theater analogy of
> playing a role takes it too far, I believe; it implies an element of
> agency in the subject that is not part of the meaning of a linking
> verb. It's certainly true that people might deserve a certain category
> label because they do stuff that is criterial for that category, but
> that is backgrounded in linking verb expressions in most cases, and,
> of course, in many cases the subject is in the category involuntarily
> (e.g., "She's a very sick kid"), or no action at all is involved
> ('Sally is a human being.')
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 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
> " E-mail: [log in to unmask] " Home page:
> http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
> interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/