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participle as adj or verb

in the sentence "I like children...if they're properly cooked." as per your site is cooked a participle adjective or a past participle part of the verb phrase. In other words can a participle act as a predicate adjective?

Re: participle as adj or verb

"...is cooked a participle adjective…" Yes


"or a past participle part of the verb phrase." No

"can a participle act as a predicate adjective?" Yes

Here is an overview:

Uses of the past participle
As an adjective
Can be used as an adjective in all the positions and functions of a typical adjective.
She swept away the fallen leaves.
A burnt child dreads fire.
He wore a torn shirt.
Here the past participles are used as adjectives before the nouns they qualify.

As part of the predicate
Can be used as part of the predicate after copular verbs such as be, seem, look, appear etc.
The woman looked distressed.
She seemed surprised.
He was left stranded.

In the appositive position
Dejected he left the room.

As object complements
I found him somewhat recovered.

As an adverb
Can be used as an adverb modifying an adjective.
I am dead tired.
He was dead drunk.

To express an earlier action of the same subject
Deceived by his friends, he killed himself.
Terrified, they fled from the scene.

Can also be used in absolute phrases with a noun or pronoun going before them.
The fog having lifted, the plane took off.

Re: participle as adj or verb

chay
in the sentence "I like children...if they're properly cooked." as per your site is cooked a participle adjective or a past participle part of the verb phrase. In other words can a participle act as a predicate adjective?


The simple answer is yes: a past participle can function as an adjectival predicative complement (your predicate adjective).

The real question here is whether your example is a complex intransitive construction - an intransitive clause containing a predicative complement - where "cooked" is an adjective, in which case it's called an adjectival passive, OR a 'real' passive construction in which "cooked" is a verb.

Adjectival passives are not real passives, though they resemble them, so ambiguities can arise. You have to ask yourself is the word describing an event, or a state. For example:

1. Her leg was broken.
2. Her leg was sore

1. is ambiguous. In the be-passive reading, it describes an event, as in "Her leg was broken in a hockey accident", but the complex-intransitive interpretation describes a state (like 2.) resulting from an earlier event: "She was using crutches because her leg was broken".

Some more:

3. The turkey was cooked .........................(ambiguous)
4. The turkey was cooked by the chef........(passive)

3. is strictly speaking ambiguous, though the salient interpretation is that "cooked" describes a state (resulting from having been placed in an oven and adequately heated some time earlier) and thus is an adjective. By comparison, 4. clearly describes an event that took place, so it's passive and "cooked" must therefore be a verb. Note also, that 4. has the active equivalent "The chef cooked the turkey".

Returning to your example, is it children that are in a state of "properly cooked" that you like? Or do you only like children who are properly cooked, for example, by some person, e.g. "...if they're properly cooked by the head chef", in which "cooked" is describing an event and is thus a verb?

Can you now answer your question yourself?

PaulM