Graded corpora as a means of researching the be-prefixed participle

Due to its specific features, the German participle has numerous functions and uses in word-formation. As partially deverbalized adjectives, participles take on the syntactic role of an adjective while at the same time retaining the valency of a verb. The paper presents the various steps in an analysis using graded (partial) corpora. Drawing on research into the properties and functions of various participle forms, it explores their specific uses in texts