<HTML><BODY><br><br><br><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" lang="EN-US" data-mce-style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Dear colleagues,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" lang="EN-US" data-mce-style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">what do we know about the periphrasis “BE + PAST PARTICIPLE” in modern English? It looks like not all verbs are compatible with it, and the aspectual meaning of the construction depends on the Aktionsart/lexical semantics of the verb. Consider 'a house is built</span> by wisdom’, ‘he is gone, ‘the glass is broken’, ‘it is already done’, "you do not buy it, it is given to you’ (as a stewardess on a Pan Am flight told me back in 1990). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" lang="EN-US" data-mce-style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">What do people say/read about it?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" lang="EN-US" data-mce-style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Thank you very much,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Sergey</span></p><br></BODY></HTML>