'Actually many people have misunderstood or not quite grasped the proper way to use past participle, and you often see people combining past participle with "is" or "be"...'
Well, why do you say it is a misunderstanding? There is nothing wrong with combining past participle with 'be'.
be + past participle is the construction for the passive voice.
Your example involves the use of the past participle in 'perfect tenses'.
Hence, we see that when the past participle is used as an adjective,
it derives from either of two principles:
from perfect tenses (the following all have active meanings):
a divorced couple--a couple who have divorced
a fallen botten- a bottle that has fallen on the ground
a retired policeman - a policeman who has retired
advanced countries - countries which have advanced to a higherr level
an escaped criminal
vanished civilisations
swollen ankles
wilted flowers
faded colours/glory
a grown-up daughter
a much-travelled man
a well-read person
recently-arrived immigrants
a frozen lake
from the passive voice:
licensed hawkers
a torn ligament
a required subject
a frightened girl
spoken English
a lost dog
home-made cakes
a recently-built house
the above-mentioned point
(and lots of others)
Of course, we can look at 'divorce' either way:
the couple (the man and the woman) have divorced---the divorced couple
the man has divorced the woman (or vice versa)---the divorced woman (or man).
Again, with ergative verbs:
a broken rod: a rod that has broken or
a rod that has been broken (by.....)
Did you know that the first line in the Christmas carol 'Joy To The World' reads:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come (old version)
(The Lord has come (modern version))
In the old version, the past participle 'come' is not used for the passive voice, but rather as an adjective to describe the state of the Lord being here as a result of His having come, in a similar fashion to:
My sons are all grown up (emphasising the current state)
( = My sons have all grown up.---emphasising the completed action)
She is retired. ( = She has retired.)
Of course, in modern English, such use of the past participle as an adjective
after 'be' in a predicative position (表語位置) in place of the predicative has/have/had + past participle is possible only with a few verbs such as the above.
While the old version reads: The Lord is come,
in modern English we don't say: The manager is come (when we mean the manager has come).
I hope the above explanations are helpful.
To return to what you say, I think the improper use you refer to is found in wrong sentences like:
An accident was happened (when we should say 'An accident has happened'.)
Right?
[ 本帖最後由 白貓兒 於 2006-11-14 12:38 AM 編輯 ]
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