“Quasi-Passive” With Positional Copula Verbs in English
The aim of the investigation is to describe the semantics of the structure «stand / lie / sit + Participle II» as an aspect modification of constructions known as “quasi-passive” with the copula be. The research performed on the basis of text-corpus data brought to light three varieties of “quasi-passive”: 1) stative; 2) subjective resultative; 3) the clause with a predicative adjective. In the course of analysis typical semantic groups of Participle II tending to interact with positional copula verbs are established. The urgency of the investigation is connected to the fact that positional copula verbs remain little-studied as an aspect modification of the basic form with the copula be.