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Example sentence: "Cars were expected to stay under the speed limit."

Is "expected" used there as an action verb (combined with "were" as a helping verb) or as an adjective (combined with "were" as a being verb)?

Mike Crittenden
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1 Answers1

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It's a verb used in a passive construction. If it were an adjective, it would be possible to switch are for other verbs that allow complex-intransitive constructions such as seem, look, appear, prove, etc.

*Cars seem expected to stay under the speed limit.

*Cars look expected to stay under the speed limit.

*Cars appear expected to stay under the speed limit.

*Cars prove expected to stay under the speed limit.

Use in complex-transitives would also be possible.

Bob made [the cars] [easy to drive].

*Bob made [the cars] [expected to stay under the speed limit].

Use of degree modifiers very, pretty should be possible if it were an adjective.

*Cars were very expected to stay under the speed limit.

Expected can take degree modifiers that work for verbs.

Cars were somewhat expected to stay under the speed limit.

Cars were very much expected to stay under the speed limit.

DW256
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    Hmmm. "Women, on the other hand, seem expected to take care of the house and the children, even if they work outside the home." - "Sacrifice is a concept that mothers and teachers seem expected to live—to sacrifice one's own will in the service of others." - "These despatches again are the terror of the colonial Law Officers, who seem expected to be, but cannot always be, men of universal learning and encyclopaedic knowledge." – Araucaria - Him Sep 13 '22 at 08:24
  • "in both countries daughters as well as sons appear expected to help elderly parents" - "I was very much afraid of the dark" - "It was somewhat gloomy." – Araucaria - Him Sep 13 '22 at 08:30
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    @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. Fair enough. Under certain circumstances, especially literary, the complex-intransitive test is not perfect. However, I'd still argue that those examples are of verbs, not adjectives, for the other reasons given above. – DW256 Sep 13 '22 at 09:54
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    CGEL take the test with verbs such as seem/look/appear/become to be decisive for deciding between adjective and verb. My feeling is that in OP's sentence it most likely is the verb we're looking at. However, there does seem to be a (rarer) adjective available too. (And so we can't decide 100% either way in the original example). Because expect is a stative verb, there's not much to choose between the two, it seems to me! – Araucaria - Him Sep 13 '22 at 10:08
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    The passive form here does seem closely related to the active 'They / the police / the authorities ... expected cars to stay under the speed limit'. I'm not going to analyse the different possible scenarios regarding the different possible senses of 'were expected to' (pure likelihood or considered reasonable/mandatory). – Edwin Ashworth Sep 13 '22 at 15:12