...I think that 'seated' is more of an act than 'great.' The active form can be 'seat yourself'= 'make yourself sit (down).'
In theory, I think 'seated' could be a reflexive verb, as you suggest. The explicit version of the phrase would then be:
Please, be seated by yourselves.In practise, I don't think it is. One way of arguing this point is to compare 'please, be seated' with 'please, be quiet.'
'Quiet' is both a verb and an adjective. The verb form can be used reflexively: quiet yourself.
If we argue that 'seated' is a verb, and that 'please, be seated' is the passive voice, it would seem reasonable that we had the same construction with 'quiet', which would render:
Please, be quieted.But that's not how the phrase is said. Instead, it uses the adjectival form, 'quiet'.
Analogy suggests that in 'please, be seated', since there is no adjectival form of 'seat', the past participle of the verb 'seat' is used as an adjective.
I am not saying that imperative 'be' + past participle cannot ever be the passive voice. For instance, we can hold up a book to someone and say 'Be inspired!' and imply 'by this book'. In that case, the construction is passive.
As for the notion that 'be seated' is more of an act than 'be great', well, yes perhaps, but that was not my point. I simply wanted to show that this construction is normally used with adjectives, and 'great' is a typical adjective.
As I see it, 'please, be seated' does not express an action, but it implies an action, just like in the case of 'please, be quiet,' since we can assume that the addressees are not seated and not quiet, respectively.
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