Was married (yesterday)

[Rudolph C Troike]

        Pat's observation about the ambiguity of "was married yesterday"
is interesting. It is ambiguous between a passive verbal interpretation
(went through a wedding ceremony) and a stative adjectival interpretation
(was still hitched then). The homonymy of the two "marrieds" in English
combined with the existence of only one Copula creates the surface
ambiguity. In Spanish, they are differentiated through the use of two
different Copulas, SER and ESTAR, the former for the "active" passive and
the latter for the "inactive" stative-resultative adjectival. "Married"
and "killed" part company here, since the first is atelic and the latter
telic, and there is no adjectival stative past participle "killed".

        Rudy