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I got a quesiton recently which was:

True or False: The linking verb 'be' is always considered a stative verb?

To my knowledge, the answer should be True (i.e., the verb 'be' is always supposed to be a stative verb) but in the answer section of the book, the correct answer has been provided as: 'False'. I would like to know who is right here. Furthermore, if I am wrong, please provide examples to make it clear to me.

Regards

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Thought.co explains that there are verbs which are both stative and active:

English also has plenty of gray areas, where a word isn't always only in one or the other category—sometimes words are stative and sometimes active. As with so many things in English, it depends on context.

Be is such a verb. Collins explains

People’s behaviour. For this we use the continuous tenses of the verb with a suitable adjective.

  • I am not being slow, I am being careful.
  • You were being very rude to your mum when I came downstairs.

So in the progressive tense, be refers to temporary behaviour. There is this question about the usage of "being" that can give you a clearer idea about the matter.

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    Thank you for the clarafication. I was unable to recall any sentence in which the verb 'be' could be a dynamic/action verb. I think your example: "You were being very rude..." does just that. It shows action in a way. So, thank you for that.
    – G.M.
    Sep 29, 2022 at 10:02
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    'Be good!'' at least strongly implies a change in overall behaviour, and according to Dowty's third test [in the relevant Wikipedia article] probably can't be considered a stative usage, while according to @John Lawler's response at Are inchoative and causative verbs action or stative verbs? the situation is complicated. I'd say JL's response is essential reading for an overview.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Sep 29, 2022 at 10:53
  • Imperatives invoke compliance, which is a matter of doing something, and hence have a dynamic VP, as opposed to a stative one. Imperative "be" is thus lexical not auxiliary, thus not stative.
    – BillJ
    Sep 29, 2022 at 13:46
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    Be is always an auxiliary, and -- to the extent it has any semantic properties, which is not very much -- it's always stative. Or you can say it copies the active/stative property from the predicate it's introducing. You can say it's "active" when it's the auxiliary of an active predicate like good, in the behavior sense; but it's "stative" when it's the auxiliary of a stative predicate like tall. Except that semantic properties aren't copied onto auxiliary verbs -- they stay with their predicates.
    – John Lawler
    Sep 29, 2022 at 15:53
  • "Be" is predominantly an auxiliary, but it's also a lexical verb in imperatives and examples like "Why don't you be more tolerant?", where it behaves as a lexical verb by virtue of taking do -support in present tense negatives.
    – BillJ
    Sep 29, 2022 at 17:32

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