10 · Predict
Linking verbs
Some verbs are followed by a phrase that describes or identifies the subject. In The soup tasted salty, salty describes the soup. The course calls this phrase a subject complement and calls tasted a linking use of the verb.
a useful paraphrase
Make the subject–property relation plain
Salty is the subject complement of the linking verb tasted.
Salty keeps the same subject-complement relation beside was — a verb label lesson 11 introduces.
The second sentence preserves the relation between the soup and its saltiness. That supports the subject-complement analysis. It does not make tasted mean the same as was: tasting adds a flavour meaning. A be paraphrase is evidence in a controlled example, not a test that classifies every verb.
The frame belongs to this use of the verb.
The children grew, The farmer grew potatoes, and The sky grew dark use grew in three frames. Here, adjective phrases are the first subject-complement form the course shows; a subject complement can also be a noun phrase, which the next lesson makes visible.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.