transitivity of "expire" (fwd)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:55 PM -0500 2/27/02, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>>It's not particularly uncommon.  Joan Bresnan had a long paper on
>>them back in '82 or thenabouts, citing examples like "fallen leaves",
>>"well-travelled man", "well-read woman", "undescended testicle", etc.
>>I don't have the article on me, but there were a number of other
>>examples.
>>
>>larry
>
>"He's a grown man," "It's a done deal," and (<BAP) "disabled toilet."
>
For me, "done deal" isn't really in either category--it's a deal that
was done (where done is an adjectival passive participle), not
necessarily a deal that was done that was done by someone, but
certainly not a deal that HAS done.  Similarly, I think, with a
disabled toilet, or for that matter a disabled veteran or
ball-player.  In fact the latter could be again a veteran/ball-player
who was disabled by an injury, hence a regular passive participle.
"grown man" is certainly a very nice example of a perfect-derived
participle.  Another group is represented by "melted ice" = ice that
HAS melted, not necessarily ice that WAS melted by someone/something.
Some of Bresnan's examples (besides the above ones I itemized
yesterday) are:

elapsed time
a risen Christ
drifted snow
a lapsed Catholic
a collapsed lung
a failed writer/bank
wilted lettuce
an excaped convict
sprouted wheat
vanished civilizations
swollen feet
rotted railings
a rusted screen
burst pipes
a stuck window

[beginning to sound like my house]

...and, last but not least...an expired passport

larry