Past participial adjective

A past participial adjective (/ˈpæst ˈpɑ:(r)tɪsɪpɪəl ˈæʤəktɪv/) is an adjective derived from, and usually identically in form to, the past participle of a verb.

For example, “I am bored" is derived from the verb “bore.” With a regular verb, these end in -ed. Note that with many irregular lexical verbs, the past participle ends in -en, e.g. “a half-eaten cake", “a sunken ship.”

Some, but seemingly not all of these may be turned into adverbs, past participial adverbs by adding -ly, so e.g. marked becomes markedly, excited becomes excitedly, etc.

Sometimes, particularly with irregular verbs that have undergone regularisation, the past participial adjective may reflect an older inflection while in modern usage the past participle is either regular or identical to the preterite. For example, "molten lava" rather than *"melted lava" (from melt); a "proven case" rather than ^?"proved case" (from prove); a “clean-shaven face" rather than “a clean-shaved face" (from shave); a “sunken ship" rather than a *"sunk ship" (from sink); a “stricken ship" rather than *“a struck ship" (from strike).

Students may confuse past participial adjectives with present participial adjectives and say things like ^#“I am boring" when they mean “I am bored.”