Carol,

I asked a similar question last year. One explanation I received was that
there are two possibilites with the passive construction.

The curtains were closed by the nurse. (Obviously passive voice)

When I entered, the curtains were closed. (More of a description unless the
action happened just as I entered)

I find this hard to explain to students who are just learning passive
construction and linking verbs.



--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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>From: Carol Eisenhower <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Past participle as Adjective or Verb
>Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 13:47:01 -0500
>
>Hi All
>I teach a basic grammar class for college freshmen, and the text that
>I'm using identifies the following sentence as S+LV+SC
>"Martin Lurther King Jr. was widely admired."
>To me "was admired" looks like a passive verb phrase similar to the
>following:
>"The children were frightened by the monster."
>Can someone help me with what I'm missing here?
>Thanks
>Carol
>
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