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In the sentence, "I was well rested," is rested an adjective or a past participle?

Similarly, in the sentence, "Your room was organized," is organized an adjective or a past participle?

sealonging314
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  • What syntactic tests have you attempted? – tchrist Oct 23 '17 at 17:25
  • For organized Oxford and Cambridge both say "adjective". How hard was that? – Weather Vane Oct 23 '17 at 17:57
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    "Well-rested" is a verb-centred compound adjective with the past participle verb "rested" as head. In "Your room was organised", "organised" is ambiguous. The salient meaning is a stative one, in which case it's an adjective, cf. "Your room was very organised". On the other hand, it could have a dynamic meaning, in which case it's a past participle verb in a passive VP, cf. "Your room was organised by the maid". – BillJ Oct 23 '17 at 19:24

1 Answers1

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In a comment, BillJ wrote:

"Well-rested" is a verb-centred compound adjective with the past participle verb "rested" as head. In "Your room was organised", "organised" is ambiguous. The salient meaning is a stative one, in which case it's an adjective, cf. "Your room was very organised". On the other hand, it could have a dynamic meaning, in which case it's a past participle verb in a passive VP, cf. "Your room was organised by the maid".

tchrist
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