ABSTRACT
The stretched verb constructions of Structure 1, unlike all others, involve an adjective-based construction: a copular verb like be combines with an adjective that has an agentive meaning (or, more strictly, an agentive-eventive meaning, i.e. one that describes the quality taken on by a subject performing the event described by the verb). Thus be active, for instance, is a kindred structure to the simplex verb phrase act, with the adjective relying on its morphological derivation from the verb to give it its agentive-eventive meaning. Thus, although an ‘agent’, or some other semantic role associated with the grammatical subject, implies an underlying event, this event is referred to only obliquely, through the quality designated by the adjective.
