Re passive vs. active past participles: given that passive sentences are relatively rare in most genres of English, it is probably true that most occurrences of the past participle verb form are not passive. I think what Dick Veit is getting at is that when a past participle is used as a modifier (half-eaten cookies) rather than as part of a verb phrase (we have eaten the cookies), it is most often passive. I think he is thinking of occurrences of participles in participial phrases -- 'the investors, _discouraged_ by the wildly fluctuating market, retreated to blue-chip mutual funds'. But what about cases like 'a fallen tree'? 'The tree fell', 'The tree has fallen' aren't passives. Here again the category/function distinction is important. 'Participle' is the category that the form of the verb belongs to -- it's one of a verb's 'principal parts'; it has various functions -- as adjective-like modifier, as part of a tense/aspect construction such as present perfect, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Assistant 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. 756-259 • E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba ** "Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose, but that's not why people do it normally" - Frank Oppenheimer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~