Consider the following sentence.
The blue page is stapled to the red page.
Although "stapled" is (apparently) past-tense, nonetheless the above sentence is clearly expressing something about the present. What gives? In particular, would it be wrong to label "stapled" as past-tense in that sentence?
(note: Er, actually the OP's question involves the difference between a passive construction and a construction with a predicative adjective -- F.E.)
- The blue page is stapled to the red page.
In particular, would it be wrong to label "stapled" as past-tense in the above sentence?
Well, let's look at this a bit. First of all, your example sentence has only one tensed verb, and that is the verb "is" -- the verb "is" is present tense. There is no verb in your example sentence that is past tense.
LONG VERSION:
The word "stapled" is either a past-participle form of a verb in a passive-voice construction, or it is an adjective in an active-voice construction, or the word could be ambiguous (where both possibilities of verb and adjective are acceptable).
I'm not sure how all interested you might be about this topic of "verbal passive versus adjectival passive", but that is a topic that can be rather lengthy and time consuming. I've already spent quite a bit of time on a recent lengthy post (about the pronoun "it"), so my fingers are a bit tired. But let me at least present to you some tidbits that could be used to support the idea that a passive interpretation for your example sentence could be reasonable.
(Note that no context for the example sentence was provided -- just an example sentence -- and so, that sorta means that we can create any reasonable context that we might want in order to support whatever it is that we're trying to prove.)
In general, if the "candidate" passive version has basically the same meaning as the active version, then that is usually good enough evidence to support the opinion that a passive interpretation is feasible.
And so, with that in mind: Imagine that we got a page of instructions. Those instructions could say something like,
"Customer staples A to B. Customer then staples C to D."
Those above instructions are in present-tense and in active-voice. Let's see what the candidate passive-voice version would look like,
"A is stapled to B. Then C is stapled to D."
Basically, that version has the same meaning as the active version (except that the active's subject info of "customer" is lost). This last version is also in present-tense, due to the verb "is". Here, the word "stapled" is a past-participle form of a verb, which is used in a passive construction.
And so, it seems that a passive construction interpretation -- where "stapled" is considered to be a past-participle form of a verb -- is reasonable.
(Aside: Passive constructions can also have an interpretation that has a stative meaning. That is, their interpretation is not required to have a dynamic meaning. But perhaps that topic is better for another day.)
In your example "The blue page is stapled to the red page": To compete with the passive construction (where "stapled" is a verb), it might be reasonable to consider an intransitive construction (where "stapled" is an adjective). In the intransitive construction, your example sentence might be a copular clause, where the word "stapled" is an adjective that has the function of predicative complement (and the predicand is the subject "the blue page"). Usually these types of constructions have an interpretation that describes a state.
But, what is important here is that, in both possible types of construction (passive and intransitive copular), the word "stapled" is NOT a past-tense verb form.
Hope this helps.
Swan classes this usage as participial (and thus I'd say verbal):
Most past participles have passive meanings when they are used like adjectives or adverbs.
... [emphasis mine]
He lived alone, forgotten by everybody.
cf He is loved [by everybody].
One trouble with classifying 'loved' as an adjective is that it isn't commonly used attributively
?/* A loved man.
except in combinations such as 'much loved':
Nelson was a much loved and respected figure.
However, this is possible:
_Dan is liked by all his new family.
_Oh? He told me that he thought wasn't really being accepted.
_No, no! He really is loved / popular.
'Popular' is obviously not a verb [form].
Sometimes, it is far easier than this to distinguish adjectival and verbal usages of -ed forms:
[On arriving back home, we saw that] the front window was broken. [adj]
The front window was broken by the ball Gayle hit over the main stand. [verb]
But in the sentence given, I'd agree it's ambiguous, though nearer the passive verb end of the continuum.
It's actually trickier than it looks.
The word is used as an adjective when describing a condition that already exists, as in When you open the file you get a surprise. The blue page is stapled to the red page.
But you might be describing a process: First, the blue page is stapled to the red page, then the yellow page is placed on top... Here, stapled is functioning as a true verb, but in the passive form.
The example given probably falls under the former heading, though you'd have to read it in context to be sure. The use of the past participle as an adjective is widespread in English, as I'm sure it is in most languages. The house is haunted: it's a haunted house. The pin is bent: it's a bent pin...
It's easy. A participle is always being used as an adjective, since a "participle" is a verb which is being used as an adjective.
You can tell participles, which are not adjectives but rather verbs, from real adjectives by whether the -ing word can be modified by "very". Using that test on your example, "recording" and "shivering" are participles (not adjectives), but "willing" is an adjective (not a participle).
For every dedicated scientist patiently (*very) recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while (*very) shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls (very) willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
Substitute stapled with any similar meaning VERB in the past participle and you get:
"The blue page is glued/stuck/fastened/joined/sellotaped/clipped/stapled to the red page"
The construction is in the passive voice and the verb be is in the present tense. It is the same as saying:
Navel and Valencia oranges are grown in California (plural)
and
Coffee is harvested in Guatemala from December to March (singular)
Adjectives that precede the noun are called attributive
Blue/red/cheap/expensive paper.
However, we can also use verbs to describe nouns using the -ed ending e.g. "a folded red page" and "a stapled blue page". If the verb is irregular its past participle form is used e.g., "a written yellow page".
A glued / sellotaped / clipped / stapled blue page.
The words ending in -ed are called past participial adjectives because they are derived from past participles of verbs. (Emphasis mine)
The -ed adjectives (advanced, alleged, bored, complicated, excited, exhausted) have a completed or passive meaning.
"These were the condemned men, due to be hanged within the next week or two." (George Orwell, "A Hanging." Adelphi, August 1931)
If the past participle is placed before the noun, it's clear it functions as an adjective. In the OP's example
The blue page is stapled to the red page.
I would argue that the sentence is typically constructed in the passive voice; somebody or something stapled the two pages together. Using a different linking verb such as: become, seem, appear, feel, look, sound makes it clearer that the past participle is functioning as an adjective.
The blue page looks stapled to the red page
"Stapled" in this sentence is not a verb: it is an adjective. The verb in the sentence is "is".
Consider this sentence: "I carried the stapled pages to the filing cabinet." Here, I think it is clear that the verb is "carried". "Stapled" is an adjective describing the pages that were carried.
When verbs are used as adjectives, we often use the past-tense version of the verb, regardless of when the action happens. We say, "Yesterday we painted the whole building green. The building is now painted." "Tomorrow we will paint the upstairs rooms. The painted rooms will not have any furniture." Etc.
Other times we have a special version of the verb when it is used as an adjective. "I broke my pencil. The pencil is broken." A common error by children and foreigners learning the language is to say -- WRONG -- "The pencil is broke."
Loved is still a verb, but it's the past participle, so plays a similar role to an adjective.
This sentence uses the passive voice.
