S. Schane, LIGN 105, Law & Language

Written Assignment - Status and State

For the following sentences indicate whether the underlined attributes depict statuses or states of their subjects.  A noun (e.g. teacher) or a noun phrase (e.g. an intelligent student)  typically denotes a status, whereas an adjective (e.g. sad), a past participle (e.g. broken), or an adjective phrase (.e.g. in high spirits), depending on context, can indicate a status or a state.

NOTE: For those of you who know Spanish, sentences with statuses would require the verb ser, whereas those with states often take the verb estar .

  STATUS             STATE

 1. _X__                 ___        Obama is the president of the United States. [nouns always depict status]

 2. ___                  __X_     Herman seems to be in a bad mood.  [prep. phrase; acts like an adjective; current condition; verb 'seems' indicates state]]

 3. ___                  __X_     Helen is getting married today. [change of state  from being single to being married]

 4. ___                  __X_     I think Helen is pregnant. [current condition]

 5. ___                  __X_     Helen seems sad. [current state of mind; note the verb 'seems' too]

 6. _X_                 ___        Professor Zachary is boring. [inherent quality of  his personality]

 7. _X__                ___        My sister is young. [current status at this point in time]

 8. _X__                ___        Sidney is a chronic alcoholic. [noun]

 9. ___                  _X_        I'm embarrassed over what happened. [current state of mind; whatever happened caused the state]

10. _X__              ___        Peter is a married man. [noun]

11. ___                 _X__     Helen looks beautiful in that exquisite wedding gown. [current state; notice also the verb 'looks']

12. ___                 _X__     Sidney has been drunk for an entire week. [current condition from act of drinking even though it has lasted a week]

13. ___                 _X__     Professor Zachary's students are bored. [current state of mind]

14.  _X__             ___        The U.S. marines pride themselves in being brave. [perceived innate quality;]

15. _X__              ___        I'm not lazy! I just don't like working on weekends. [perceived innate quality; equivant to:  'i'm not a lazy person']

16. _X__              ___        That guy thinks he's macho. [perceived  innate quality]

17. ___                 _X__     I feel lazy this morning.  I think I'll stay in bed. [present condition; notice verb 'feel']

18. ___                 __X_     You shouldn't wear black.  It makes you look old. [current state; notice verb 'look']

19. _X__              ___        For being President of the United States, Obama is not old. [inherent quality now]

20. _X__              ___        I'm a shortie, but my older brother is tall. [inherent trait]

21. _X__              ___        The Eiffel Tower is tall. [inherent trait of what the Eiffel Tower is]

22. ___                 __X_     This lemonade is too sweet. [the state from adding too much sugar]

23. __X___      ___        Sugar is sweet. [sweetness is an inherent quality of sugar]

24. __X__ ___ My little sister is sweet. [her inherent personality]

25. __X__ ___ My little sister is a sweetheart. [same thing as 24; her inherent personality]