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Do they both mean the same thing with former having 'disappointed' as a noun while the latter, as a verb.Or the latter may refer seeing a person becoming disappointed and the former, a person already in a disappointed state.

There's another statement:

He seemed to becoming disappointed.

But I believe this's incorrect.

Anubhav
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  • Anubhav, your opinion about disappointed after seem is not correct. See this for more info http://ell.stackexchange.com/a/87989/3463 – Man_From_India Jul 07 '16 at 03:06

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seem is a type of verb known as a link verb. A link word can be followed either by a noun or an adjective:

she seems intelligent - adjective
she seems an intelligent woman - noun phrase

These are just two ways of expressing the same meaning.

In both of your sentences, disappointed is a passive participle- a special kind of adjective.

The words seem and appear are special link-words: we can also use them with to be + an adjective. Some other link words are also used informally in this way, for example look, get, and grow.

she seems disappointed - adjective
she seems to be disappointed - to be + adjective

These sentences have different constructions but identical meanings.

He seemed to becoming disappointed.

This sentence is nearly grammatically correct: here are two alternative corrections, both meaning that at some time in the past his mood changed from not disappointed to disappointed

He seemed to become disappointed. - simple
He seemed to be becoming disappointed. - continuous

JavaLatte
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  • "We use the infinitive to be with the complement disappointed to make a noun phrase to disappointed. " ---> This is not correct. – Man_From_India Jul 07 '16 at 03:12
  • @Man_From_India: I have updated my answer to correspond to the link, however I remain unconvinced that to be disappointed is not a noun phrase. Consider the sentence To be disappointed is a terrrible thing. – JavaLatte Jul 07 '16 at 03:29
  • I have very little knowledge about the distinction of clause and phrase. Hmmm you might be correct, but in all books it says it's infinitive clause. Not very sure about clause vs phrase. But your "He seemed to becoming disappointed." is not correct sentence. – Man_From_India Jul 07 '16 at 03:56
  • Come to think of it, it might be a phrase, but it never act like a noun phrase. Because unlike noun phrase, it has progressive and perfective aspect. Like - to have done it and to be doing it. – Man_From_India Jul 07 '16 at 04:21
  • @Man_From_India: Regarding "He seemed to becoming disappointed.", I am quoting one of the OP's sentences: if you read the lines following it, I do actually say that it is nearly correct, and propose two corrected versions. – JavaLatte Jul 07 '16 at 06:28
  • i did, but doesn't it mean that it still is correct? – Man_From_India Jul 07 '16 at 06:35
  • @Man_From_India: no, nearly correct does not mean correct. nearly means "almost, or not completely". If something is nearly finished, it is not finished. If something nearly happened, it did not happen. – JavaLatte Jul 07 '16 at 07:05
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    @Man_From_India, JavaLatte : In old fashioned grammar, where they were unable to clearly distinguish between what type of word or phrase something was, and what type of job it was doing in the sentence, people used to do daft things like calling subjects noun phrases or calling modifiers adjectives. But in modern grammar we make a difference between being a subject and being a noun phrase. This is also very important for learners. Notice that old fashioned grammars would say that "to be disappointed" was a noun phrase *AND* a clause here. It is not, of course. It is a clause. – Araucaria - Not here any more. Jul 07 '16 at 10:45