Is turned a linking or action verb?

Answer 1

Turned can be either an action verb OR a linking verb, depending on its function in the sentence. Examples:

ACTION VERB: The car turned the corner. (Corner is a direct object receiving the action of transitive verb turned.)

LINKING VERB: The night wind turned cold. (Turned links wind to cold, a predicate adjective describing wind.)

The easy way to recognize a linking verb is that a linking verb acts as an equals sign, the object of the verb is a different form of the subject (Mary is my sister. Mary=sister); or the subject becomes the object (...wind turned cold. wind->cold).

Answer 2

turned