Participle

In linguistics, a participle (PTCP) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives.[1] Functioning as a verb, a participle comprises perfective or continuative grammatical aspects in numerous tenses (e.g. We have arrived). Adjectivally, a participle can function on a prepositive basis (e.g. ‘’boiled’’ potato) or on a postpositive basis (e.g. a potato boiled to perfection).

Etymology

The word participle comes from classical Latin participium,[2] from particeps 'sharing, participation', because it shares certain properties of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The Latin grammatical term is a calque of the Greek grammatical term μετοχή 'participation, participle'.[3][4]

In particular, Greek and Latin participles agree with the nouns that they modify in gender, number, case, but they are also conjugated for tense and voice, and can take prepositional and adverbial modifiers.

The linguistic term, past participle, was coined circa 1798[5] based on its participial form, whose morphology equates to the regular form of preterite verbs. The term, present participle, was first used circa 1864[6] to facilitate grammatical distinctions. Despite the taxonomical use of "past" and "present" as associated with the aforementioned participles, their respective semantic use can entail any tense, regardless of aspect, depending on how they are structurally combined.

Forms

Some languages have extensive participial systems, but English has only two participial forms, most commonly termed:

  1. past participle,[7] which is regularly formed with an -ed suffix (e.g. looked, ended, tutored) but has numerous irregular forms (e.g. broken, made, understood)
  2. present participle,[8] which is formed with an -ing suffix (e.g. breaking, making, understanding)

Some grammars further distinguish passive participles[9] as often associated with passive voice versus active participles[10] as often associated with e.g. the present progressive tense, but such linguistic distinctions are neither recognized nor employed on a universal basis.

Usage

In English, numerous tenses entail passive or active participles to express a perfective or continuative grammatical aspect. Participles also have an adjectival function, or an adverbial function:

Active participle usage versus passive participle usage
Example Tense name Parsed item Lexical category Active Passive
You look lost present simple lost past participle; adjectival yes
You look charming present simple charming present participle; adjectival yes
You are lost present simple lost past participle; adjectival (passive voice) yes
You are losing present continuous losing present participle; aspectual yes
He has finished present perfect finished past participle; aspectual yes
He has been finished present perfect been past participle; aspectual (passive voice) yes
He has been finished present perfect finished past participle; adjectival (passive voice) yes
He has been finishing present perfect continuous finishing present participle; aspectual yes
She had been run past perfect been past participle; aspectual (passive voice) yes
She had been run past perfect run past participle; aspectual (passive voice) yes
She had been running past perfect continuous running present participle; aspectual yes
She had been running ragged past perfect continuous ragged past participle; adverbial yes
She had been running unwillingly past perfect continuous unwillingly suffixed present participle; adverbial yes
The baked bread n/a baked past participle (prepositive); adjectival yes
Bread baked daily n/a baked past participle (postpositive); adjectival yes
The acting president n/a acting present participle (prepositive); adjectival yes
The time remaining n/a remaining present participle (postpositive); adjectival yes

Accordingly, a participle can be used as an adjective:

  • A broken window.
  • A fallen tree.
  • An interesting book.

Another use relates to postpositive phrases that function as a shortened form of a relative clause:

  • A window broken by the wind.
  • A woman wearing a red hat.

These phrases are equivalent to

  • A window that was broken by the wind.
  • A woman who was wearing a red hat.

Often a participle can form an adverbial phrase. For example:

  • Reviewing her bank statement, Ann started to cry.
  • Having reviewed the bank statement, Ann started to cry.
  • Maintained properly, wooden buildings can last for centuries.

These can be paraphrased as adverbial clauses such as "while she reviewed her bank statement", "after she reviewed her bank statement", and "when they are maintained properly". A verb phrase based on a participle may be called a participle phrase or participial phrase (participial is an adjective derived from participle). For example, wearing a hat and broken by the wind are participial phrases comprise a present participle and a past participle, respectively.

A fourth use of participles in some languages entails the combination with an auxiliary verb such as "has" or "is," thereby rendering a compound or periphrastic verb tense, which in other languages can often be expressed by a single word:

  • He had drawn his sword (= Latin strinxerat). She was sleeping (= Latin dormiebat).

Types of participle

Participles are often connected to certain grammatical tenses or grammatical aspects. The two types of participle in Modern English are termed present participle and past participle, respectively. However, Crystal indicated that "there is a tendency to avoid the traditional terms (and use terms like -ing form and -ed/-en form instead)".[11] Other grammar books also noted that the terms do not imply that they are tensed forms.[12] The traditional terms are misleading because the present participle is often associated with the progressive (continuous) aspect, while the past participle is linked with the perfect aspect or passive voice. See the examples below:

  • They were just standing there.[13]
  • By the time you get home I will have cleaned the house.[14]

The first sentence is in the past tense, but a present participle was used to express the progressive aspect. The second sentence is in the future tense, but a past participle was used for the perfect meaning.

Participles may also be identified with a particular voice: active or passive. Some languages (such as Latin and Russian) have distinct participles for active and passive uses. In English, the present participle is essentially an active participle, while the past participle has both active and passive uses.

The following examples illustrate this:

  • I saw John eating his dinner. (Here eating is an active present participle).
  • The bus has gone. (Here gone is an active past participle).
  • The window was broken with a rock. (Here broken is a passive past participle)

A distinction is also sometimes made between adjectival participles and adverbial participles. An adverbial participle (or a participial phrase/clause based on such a participle) plays the role of an adverbial (adverb phrase) in the sentence in which it appears, whereas an adjectival participle (or a participial phrase/clause based on one) plays the role of an adjective phrase. Some languages have different forms for the two types of participle; such languages include Russian[15] and other Slavic languages, Hungarian, and many Eskimo languages, such as Sireniki,[16] which has a sophisticated participle system. Details can be found in the sections below or in the articles on the grammars of specific languages.

Some descriptive grammars treat adverbial and adjectival participles as distinct lexical categories, while others include them both in a single category of participles.[15][17] Sometimes different names are used; adverbial participles in certain languages may be called converbs, gerunds, or gerundives (though this is not consistent with the meanings of the terms gerund or gerundive as normally applied to English or Latin), or transgressives.

Participles can be used adjectivally (i.e. without characteristics of canonical verbs) as attributive adjectives. They then take neither object complements nor modifiers that are typical of canonical verbs, but adjectivally attributive participles are capable of being modified by adverbs such as very or slightly. The difference is illustrated by the following examples:

  • The subject interesting him at the moment is Greek history.
  • Greek history is a very interesting subject.

In the first sentence interesting functions transitively as a nonfinite verb that takes the object him, thereby forming the phrase interesting him, which constitutes an adjectival phrase that modifies the noun, subject. However, in the second sentence interesting functions non-transitively; it instead acts as a prepositive adjective that can be modified by typical adverbs such as very or quite (or a prefix such as un-). Similar examples are "interested people", "a frightened rabbit", "fallen leaves", "meat-eating animals".

Indo-European languages

Early English

In Old English, past participles of Germanic strong verbs were marked with a ge- prefix, as are most strong and weak past participles in Dutch and German today, and often by a vowel change in the stem. Those of weak verbs were marked by the ending -d, with or without an epenthetic vowel before it. Modern English past participles derive from these forms (although the ge- prefix, which became y- in Middle English, has now been lost — except in some rare dialects such as the Dorset dialect, where it takes the form of a-).

Old English present participles were marked with an ending in -ende (or -iende for verbs whose infinitives ended in -ian).

Middle English

In Middle English, the form of the present participle varied across regions: -ende (southwest, southeast, Midlands), -inde (southwest, southeast), -and (north), -inge (southeast). The last is the one that became standard, falling together with the suffix -ing used to form verbal nouns. See -ing (etymology).

Modern English

Modern English includes two traditional terms for its participles:[18]

  • The present participle, also sometimes called the active, imperfect, or progressive participle, takes the ending -ing, for example doing, seeing, working, running. It is identical in form to the verbal noun and gerund (see below). The term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund;[19] and the term "gerund–participle" is also used.
  • The past participle, also sometimes called the passive or perfect participle, is identical to the past tense form (ending in -ed) in the case of regular verbs, for example "loaded", "boiled", "mounted", but takes various forms in the case of irregular verbs, such as done, sung, written, put, gone, etc.

In addition various compound participles can be formed, such as having done, being done, having been doing, having been done.[20]

Details of participle formation can be found under English verbs and List of English irregular verbs.

The present participle, or participial phrases (clauses) formed from it, are used as follows:

  • to form the progressive (continuous) aspect: Jim was sleeping.
  • as an adjectival phrase that can modify a subject or object: The man standing over there is my uncle; We are a people clamoring for freedom.
  • adverbially, the subject being understood to be the same as that of the main clause: Looking at the plans, I gradually came to see where the problem lay. He shot the man, killing him.
  • similarly, but with a different subject, placed before the participle (the nominative absolute construction): He and I having reconciled our differences, the project then proceeded smoothly.
  • more generally as a clause or sentence modifier: Broadly speaking, the project was successful. (See also dangling participle.)

Past participles, or participial phrases (clauses) formed from them, are used as follows:

  • to form the perfect aspect: The chicken has eaten.
  • to form the passive voice: The chicken was eaten.
  • as an adjectival phrase: The chicken eaten by the children was contaminated. (See also reduced relative clause.)
  • adverbially: Eaten in this manner, the chicken presents no problem.
  • in a nominative absolute construction, with a subject: The chicken eaten, we returned home.

Both types of participles are also often used adjectivally (see § Types of participle above). For instance:

  • "An exciting adventure" (i.e. one that excites) demonstrates a present participle that is used in an attributive sense.
  • "The attached files" (i.e. those that are attached) and "Our fallen comrades" (i.e. those who have fallen) demonstrate past participles that are used in an attributive sense.

Note, however, that a past participle that complements a stative verb (e.g., "The files that are attached or "Our comrades who have fallen) becomes a passive participle within a passive voice construct. Additionally, participles that express an adjectivally attributive meaning can be affixed to form adverbs, such as interestingly and excitedly.

The gerund is distinct from the present participle. A gerund can function transitively (e.g., "I like eating ice cream) or intransitively (e.g., "I like swimming). In both instances, a gerund functions nominatively rather than adjectivally or adverbially whether as an object (e.g., "I like sleeping") or as a subject (e.g., "Sleeping is not allowed.") Although gerunds and present participles are morphologically identical, their grammatical functions differ substantially. Sometimes their morphological similarity can create contextual ambiguity, as Noam Chomsky pointed out in his well-known example:[21]

  • Flying planes can be dangerous.

When the meaning is "The practice of flying a plane is dangerous," flying functions as a gerund; when the meaning is "Planes that fly" or "Planes when they are flying" (i.e., in contrast to grounded planes), flying is being used adjectivally as a participle.

For more on the distinctions between these uses of the -ing verb form, see -ing: uses.

For more details on uses of participles and other parts of verbs in English, see Uses of English verb forms, including the sections on the present participle and past participle.

Scandinavian languages

In all of the Scandinavian languages the past participle has to agree with the noun to some degree. All of the Scandinavian languages have mandatory agreement with the noun in number. Nynorsk and Swedish have mandatory agreement in both number and gender. Icelandic and Faroese have agreement in number, gender and case. For the present participle there is no agreement.

Examples in Nynorsk:

  • Sjølvkøyrande bilar kan vere farlege. (English: self-driving cars can be dangerous)
  • Kyllingen vart eten (English: The chicken was eaten)
  • Dyret vart ete (English: The animal was eaten)

The participles are marked in bold. The first example involves a present participle and the two latter examples involves a past participle. All present participles end with an -ande suffix.

Latin
Main articles: Latin syntax § Participles, Latin conjugation § Participles, and Latin syntax § The gerundive

Latin grammar was studied in Europe for hundreds of years, especially the handbook written by the 4th-century teacher Aelius Donatus, and it is from Latin that the name and concept of the participle derives. According to Donatus there are four participles in Latin, as follows:[22]

  • present participle: present stem + -ns (gen. -ntis); e.g. legēns (plural legentēs) "(while) reading"
  • perfect participle: supine stem + -us, -a, -um; e.g. lēctus "read (by someone)"
  • future participle: supine stem + -ūrus, -ūra, -ūrum; e.g. lēctūrus "going to read", "due to read"
  • gerundive (sometimes[23] considered the future passive participle): e.g. legendus "due to be read", "necessary to be read"

However, many modern Latin grammars treat the gerundive as a separate part of speech.[24]

The perfect participle is usually passive in meaning, and thus mainly formed from transitive verbs, for example frāctus "broken", missus "sent (by someone)". However, certain verbs (called deponent verbs) have a perfect participle in an active sense, e.g. profectus "having set out", hortātus "having encouraged", etc. The present and future participles are always active, the gerundive usually passive.

Because a participle is an adjective as well as a verb, just like any other Latin adjective its ending changes according to the noun it describes. So when the noun is masculine, the participle must be masculine; when the noun is in the accusative (object) case, the participle is also in the accusative case; when the noun has plural endings, the participle also has plural endings. Thus a simple participle such as frāctus "broken" can change to frācta, frāctum, frāctī, frāctō and so on, according to its gender, number, and case.

A participle can have a descriptive meaning like an adjective, or a more dynamic meaning like a verb. Thus in the following sentence the participle strīctō "drawn" is better taken as describing an action ("he drew his sword" or "after drawing his sword") rather than as describing the sword ("with a drawn sword"):

  • Strīctō gladiō ad dormientem Lucrētiam vēnit.[25]
    "With drawn sword he came to the sleeping Lucretia."

The dynamic, verbal meaning is more common, and Latin often uses a participle where English might use a simple verb.

The present participle often describes the circumstances attending the main verb. A typical example is:

  • Balbus ad mē vēnit currēns.[26]
    "Balbus came to me running."

Both the future and the perfect participle (but not the present participle) can be used with various tenses of the verb esse "to be" to make a compound tense such as the future-in-the-past or the perfect passive:

  • Eō diē Rōmam ventūrus erat.[27]
    "On that day he was going to return to Rome."
  • Occīsus est ā Thēbānīs.[28]
    "He was killed by the Thebans."

The perfect and future participles can also be used, with or without the verb esse "to be", in indirect speech clauses:

  • (Dīxit eōs) locum facile inventūrōs (esse).[29]
    "He said that they were easily going to find the place / He said that they would find the place easily."

For uses of the gerundive, see Latin syntax#The gerundive.

French

There are two basic participles:

  • Present active participle: formed by dropping the -ons of the nous form of the present tense of a verb (except with être and avoir) and then adding ant: marchant "walking", étant "being", ayant "having".
  • Past participle: formation varies according to verb group: vendu "sold", mis "placed", marché "walked", été "been", and fait "done". The sense of the past participle is passive as an adjective and in most verbal constructions with "avoir", but active in verbal constructions with "être", in reflexive constructions, and with some intransitive verbs.[30]

Compound participles are possible:

  • Present perfect participle: ayant appelé "having called", étant mort "being dead"
  • Passive perfect participle: étant vendu "being sold, having been sold"

Usage:

  • Present participles are used as qualifiers as in "un insecte volant" (a flying insect) and in some other contexts. They are never used to form tenses. The present participle is used in subordinate clauses, usually with en: "Je marche, en parlant".
  • Past participles are used as qualifiers for nouns: "la table cassée" (the broken table); to form compound tenses such as the perfect "Vous avez dit" (you have said) and to form the passive voice: "il a été tué" (he/it has been killed).

Spanish

In Spanish, the so-called present or active participle (participio activo or participio de presente) of a verb is traditionally formed with one of the suffixes -ante, -ente or -iente, but modern grammar does not consider it a true participle, as such forms usually have the meaning of simple adjectives or nouns: e.g. amante "loving" or "lover", viviente "living" or "live".

Another participial form is known as the gerundio, which ends in an (unchanging) suffix -ando, -endo, or -iendo. The gerundio is used in combination with the verb estar ("to be") to make continuous tenses: for example, estar haciendo means "to be doing" (haciendo being the gerundio of hacer, "to do"), and there are related constructions such as seguir haciendo meaning "to keep doing" (seguir being "to continue"). Another use is in phrases such as vino corriendo ("he/she came running") and lo vi corriendo ("I saw him running").

The past participle (participio pasado or participio pasivo) is regularly formed with one of the suffixes -ado or -ido (-ado for verbs ending in "-ar" and -ido for verbs ending in "-er" or "-ir"; but some verbs have an irregular form ending in -to (e.g. escrito, visto, puesto), or -cho (e.g. dicho, hecho).[31] The past participle is used generally as an adjective referring to a finished action, in which case its ending changes according to gender and number. At other times is used to form compound tenses: the present perfect, past perfect (sometimes referred to as the pluscuamperfecto), and the future perfect, in which case it is indeclinable. Some examples:

As an adjective (note how "escritas" agrees in gender with the noun, "las cartas"):

  • las cartas escritas "the written letters"

To form compound tenses:

  • Ha escrito una carta. "She (he, it) has written a letter."
  • Había escrito una carta. "She (he, it) had written a letter."
  • Habrá escrito una carta. "She (he, it) will have written a letter."

Ancient Greek
Main article: Participle (Ancient Greek)

The Ancient Greek participle shares in the properties of adjectives and verbs. Like an adjective, it changes form for gender, case, and number. Like a verb, it has tense and voice, is modified by adverbs, and can take verb arguments, including an object.[32] Participles are quite numerous in Ancient Greek: a non-defective verb has as many as ten participles.

There is a form of the participle for every combination of aspect (present, aorist, perfect, future) and voice (active, middle, passive). All participles are based on their finite forms. Here are the masculine nominative singular forms for a thematic and an athematic verb:

λῡ́ω
lū́ō
"I release"		activemiddlepassive
present λῡ́ων
lū́ōn		λῡόμενος
lūómenos
aorist λῡ́σᾱς
lū́sās		λῡσάμενος
lūsámenos		λυθείς
lutheís
future λῡ́σων
lū́sōn		λῡσόμενος
lūsómenos		λυθησόμενος
luthēsómenos
perfect λελυκώς
lelukṓs		λελυμένος
leluménos
τίθημι
títhēmi
"I put"		activemiddlepassive
present τιθείς
titheís		τιθέμενος
tithémenos
aorist θείς
theís		θέμενος
thémenos		τεθείς
tetheís
future θήσων
thḗsōn		θησόμενος
thēsómenos		τεθησόμενος
tethēsómenos
perfect τεθηκώς
tethēkṓs		τεθειμένος
tetheiménos

Like an adjective, it can modify a noun, and can be used to embed one thought into another.

  • πολλὰ καὶ φύσει καὶ ἐπιστήμῃ δεῖ τὸν εὖ στρατηγήσοντα ἔχειν
    pollà kaì phúsei kaì epistḗmēi deî tòn eû stratēgḗsonta ékhein
    "he who intends to be a good general must have a great deal of ability and knowledge"

In the example, the participial phrase τὸν εὖ στρατηγήσοντα tòn eû stratēgḗsonta, literally "the one going to be a good general," is used to embed the idea εὖ στρατηγήσει eû stratēgḗsei "he will be a good general" within the main verb.

The participle is very widely used in Ancient Greek, especially in prose.

Hindi & Urdu

There are two types of participles in Hindi & Urdu (called together Hindustani), aspectual participles which mark the aspect and non-aspectual participles which do not mark verbal aspect. The table below mentions the different participles present in Hindustani, ɸ denotes the verb root. The aspectual participles can take a few other copulas after them besides the verb honā "to be". Those copular verbs are rêhna "to stay", ānā "to come", jānā "to go". [33]

ASPECTUAL PARTICIPLES[34][35]
Participles Example

baiṭhnā / बैठना / بیٹھنا / to sit

 Translation
DECLINABLE Singular Plural Singular Plural
Habitual ♂ ɸ-tā ɸ-tē बैठता بیٹھتا

baiṭhtā

 बैठते بیٹھتے

baithtē

 sits, used to sit
♀ ɸ-tī ɸ-tīm̥ बैठती بیٹھتی

baiṭhtī

 बैठतीं بیٹھتیں

baiṭhtīm̥

Perfective ♂ ɸ-(y)ā ɸ-(y)ē बैठा بیٹھا

baiṭhā

 बैठे بیٹھے

baiṭhē

 sat
♀ ɸ-(y)ī ɸ-(y)īm̥ बैठी بیٹھی

baiṭhī

 बैठीं بیٹھیں

baiṭhīm̥

Progressive1 ♂ ɸ + rahā ɸ + rahē बैठ रहा بیٹھ رہا

baiṭh rahā

 बैठ रहे بیٹھ رہے

baiṭh rahē

 (in the process of) sitting
♀ ɸ + rahī ɸ + rahīm̥ बैठ रही بیٹھ رہی

baiṭh rahī

 बैठ रहीं بیٹھ رہیں

baiṭh rahīm̥

Perfective

Adjectival2

 ♂ ɸ-(y)ā huā ɸ-(y)ē huē बैठा हुआ بیٹھاہوا

baiṭhā huā

 बैठे हुए بیٹھےہوئے

baiṭhē huē

 sitting
♀ ɸ-(y)ī huī ɸ-(y)ī huīm̥ बैठी हुई بیٹھیہی

baiṭhī huī

 बैठी हुईं بیٹھی ہوئیں

baiṭhī huīm̥

Imperfective

Adjectival2

 ♂ ɸ-tā huā ɸ-tē huē बैठता हुआ بیٹھتا ہوا

baiṭhtā huā

 बैठते हुए بیٹھتے ہوئے

baiṭhtē huē

 (in the process of) sitting
♀ ɸ-tī huī ɸ-tī huīm̥ बैठती हुई بیٹھتی ہی

baiṭhtī huī

 बैठती हुईं بیٹھتی ہوئیں

baiṭhtī huīm̥

INDECLINABLE
Imperfective

Progressive

 ɸ-tē-ɸ-tē बैठते-बैठते بیٹھتے - بیٹھتے

baiṭhtē-baiṭhtē

 while (in the process of) sitting
Perfective

Progressive

 ɸ-ē-ɸ-ē बैठे-बैठे بیٹھے- بیٹھے

baiṭhē-baiṭhē

 while (already) sitting
NON-ASPECTUAL PARTICIPLES [35][36][37][38]
Participles Example

baiṭhnā / बैठना / بیٹھنا / to sit

 Translation
DECLINABLE Singular Plural Singular Plural
Infinitive ♂ ɸ-nā ɸ-nē बैठना بیٹھنا

baiṭhnā

 बैठने بیٹھنے

baiṭhnē

 to sit
♀ ɸ-nī ɸ-nīm̥ बैठनी بیتھنی

baiṭhnī

 बैठनीं بیٹھنیں

baiṭhnīm̥

Prospective

&

Agentive

 ♂ ɸ-nēvālā ɸ-nēvālē बैठनेवाला بیٹھنولا

baiṭhnēvālā

 बैठनेवाले بیٹھنوالے

baiṭhnēvālē

 (prospective) going to sit


(agentive) a person who sits [sit-er]

♀ ɸ-nēvālī ɸ-nēvālīm̥ बैठनेवाली بیٹھنوالی

baiṭhnēvālī

 बैठनेवालीं بیٹھنوالیں

baiṭhnēvālīm̥

INDECLINABLE
Oblique

Infinitive

 ɸ-nē बैठने بیٹھنے

baiṭhnē

 to sit, sitting
Conjunctive ɸ-kē, ɸ-kar बैठके, बैठकर بیٹھکے ، بیٹھکر

baiṭhkē, baiṭhkar

 having done sitting, by sitting
1 The periphrasatic adjectival marker huā, huē, huī, and huīm̥ are shortened to wā, wē, wī, and wīm̥ respectively in colloquial speech.
2 The progressive aspect marking participles rahā, rahē, rahī, and rahīm̥ are shortened to rā, rē, rī, and rīm̥ respectively in colloquial speech.

Welsh

In Welsh, the effect of a participle in the active voice is constructed by yn followed by the verb-noun (for the present participle) and wedi followed by the verb-noun (for the past participle). There is no mutation in either case. In the passive voice, participles are usually replaced by a compound phrase such as wedi cael ei/eu ("having got his/her/their ...ing") in contemporary Welsh and by the impersonal form in classical Welsh.

Polish

The Polish word for participle is imiesłów (pl.: imiesłowy). There are four types of imiesłowy in two classes:

Adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy):

  • active adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy czynny): robiący – "doing", "one who does"
  • passive adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy bierny): robiony – "being done" (can only be formed off transitive verbs)

Adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy):

  • present adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy współczesny): robiąc – "doing", "while doing"
  • perfect adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy uprzedni): zrobiwszy – "having done" (formed in virtually all cases off verbs in their perfective forms, here denoted by the prefix z-)

Due to the distinction between adjectival and adverbial participles, in Polish it is practically impossible to make a dangling participle in the classical English meaning of the term. For instance, in the sentence:

  • I found them hiding in the closet.

it is unclear whether "I" or "they" were hiding in the closet. In Polish there is a clear distinction:

  • Znalazłem ich, chowając się w szafie. – chowając is a present adverbial participle agreeing grammatically with the subject ("I")
  • Znalazłem ich chowających się w szafie. – chowających is an active adjectival participle agreeing grammatically with the object ("them")

Russian

Verb: слышать [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ] (to hear, imperfective aspect)

  • Present active: слышащий [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐ.ɕːɪj] "hearing", "who hears"
  • Present passive: слышимый [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɨ̞.mɨ̞j] "being heard", "that is heard", "audible"
  • Past active: слышавший [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j] "who heard", "who was hearing"
  • Past passive: слышанный [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j] "that was heard", "that was being heard"
  • Adverbial present active: слыша [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐ] "(while) hearing"
  • Adverbial past active: слышав [ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf] " (while) hearing "

Verb: услышать [ʊˈsɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ] (to hear, perfective aspect)

  • Past active: услышавший [ʊˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j] "who has heard"
  • Past passive: услышанный [ʊˈsɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j] "who has been heard"
  • Adverbial past active: услышав [ʊˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf] "having heard"

Future participles formed from perfective verbs are not considered a part of standard language.[39]

Bulgarian

Participles are adjectives formed from verbs. There are various kinds:

Verb: правя [pravja] (to do, imperfective aspect):

  • Present active: правещ [pravešt]
  • Past active aorist: правил [pravil]
  • Past active imperfect: правел [pravel] (only used in verbal constructions)
  • Past passive: правен [praven]
  • Adverbial present active: правейки [pravejki]

Verb: направя [napravja] (to do, perfective aspect):

  • Past active aorist: направил [napravil]
  • Past active imperfect: направел [napravel] (only used in verbal constructions)
  • Past passive: направен [napraven]

Macedonian

Macedonian has completely lost or transformed the participles of Common Slavic, unlike the other Slavic languages. The following points may be noted:[40]

  • present active participle: this has transformed into a verbal adverb;
  • present passive participle: there are some isolated cases or remnants of the present passive participle, such as the word лаком [lakom] (greedy);
  • past active participle: there is only one remnant of the past active participle, which is the word бивш [bivš] (former). However, this word is often replaced with the word поранешен [poranešen] (former);
  • past passive participle: this has been transformed into a verbal adjective (it behaves like a normal adjective);
  • resultative participle: this has transformed into a verbal l-form (глаголска л-форма). It is not a participle since it doesn't function attributively.

Lithuanian

Among Indo-European languages, the Lithuanian language is unique for having fourteen different participial forms of the verb, which can be grouped into five when accounting for inflection by tense. Some of these are also inflected by gender and case. For example, the verb eiti ("to go, to walk") has the active participle forms einąs/einantis ("going, walking", present tense), ėjęs (past tense), eisiąs (future tense), eidavęs (past frequentative tense), the passive participle forms einamas ("being walked", present tense), eitas (“walked” past tense), eisimas (future tense), the adverbial participles einant ("while [he, different subject] is walking" present tense), ėjus (past tense), eisiant (future tense), eidavus (past frequentative tense), the semi-participle eidamas ("while [he, the same subject] is going, walking") and the participle of necessity eitinas ("that which needs to be walked"). The active, passive, and the semi-participles are inflected by gender, and the active, passive, and necessity ones are inflected by case.

Semitic languages

Arabic
Main article: Arabic verbs: Participle

The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (اسم الفاعل) and a passive participle (اسم المفعول ), and the form of the participle is predictable by inspection of the dictionary form of the verb. These participles are inflected for gender, number and case, but not person. Arabic participles are employed syntactically in a variety of ways: as nouns, as adjectives or even as verbs. Their uses vary across varieties of Arabic. In general the active participle describes a property of the syntactic subject of the verb from which it derives, whilst the passive participles describes the object. For example, from the verb كتب kataba, the active participle is kātib كاتب and the passive participle is maktūb مكتوب. Roughly these translate to "writing" and "written" respectively. However, they have different, derived lexical uses. كاتب kātib is further lexicalized as "writer", "author" and مكتوب maktūb as "letter".

In Classical Arabic these participles do not participate in verbal constructions with auxiliaries the same way as their English counterparts do, and rarely take on a verbal meaning in a sentence (a notable exception being participles derived from motion verbs as well as participles in Qur'anic Arabic). In certain dialects of Arabic however, it is much more common for the participles, especially the active participle, to have verbal force in the sentence. For example, in dialects of the Levant, the active participle is a structure that describes the state of the syntactic subject after the action of the verb from which it derives has taken place. ʼĀkil, the active participle of ʼakala ("to eat"), describes one's state after having eaten something. Therefore, it can be used in analogous way to the English present perfect (for example, ʼAnā ʼākil انا آكل meaning "I have eaten", "I have just eaten" or "I have already eaten"). Other verbs, such as rāḥa راح ("to go") give a participle (rāyiḥ رايح), which has a progressive ("is going...") meaning. The exact tense or continuity of these participles is therefore determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its lexical aspect and its transitivity) and the syntactic/semantic context of the utterance. What ties them all together is that they describe the subject of the verb from which they derive. The passive participles in certain dialects can be used as a sort of passive voice, but more often than not, are used in their various lexicalized senses as adjectives or nouns.

Finno-Ugric languages

Finnish

Finnish uses six participles (partisiippi) to convey different meanings. Below is a table displaying the declension of the participles of the verb tappaa (to kill).

Finnish Participles
Active Passive
Present tappavatapettava
Past tappanut tapettu
Agent tappama-
Negative tappamaton

The participles work in the following way:

tappava Present active participle: Conveys an ongoing action. Used to omit the use of the relative pronoun who, which or that. Tappava means "killing" as in "killing machine". In other words, machine that kills. It can also work as the subject of the sentence. In other words, tappava can mean "the one who kills" or "he who kills". Tappava on... = He who kills is...
tapettava Present passive participle: Conveys possibility and obligation. Possibility as in -able (killable) and obligation as in something that has to be killed. Tapettava mies can mean both "the killable man" (possibility) and "the man who has to be killed" (obligation).
tappanut Past active participle: Used with the verb olla (to be) to construct the perfect and the past perfect tenses. In English the verb "to have" is used to form the perfect and past perfect tense (I have/had killed), in Finnish the verb "to be" is used instead (minä olen/olin tappanut). Just like the present active participle, it can also be used as the subject in a sentence, except it conveys the meaning in the past tense. In other words, tappanut can mean "the one who killed" or "he who killed". Tappanut on... = He who killed is...
tapettu Past passive participle: A concluded action. Tapettu mies = the killed man.
tappama- Agent participle: Always used with a possessive suffix. It is used to convey the meaning of the word "by" in English, since there is no word for "by" in Finnish. Hänen tappamansa mies = The man killed by him. The tense of the translation depends on the context.
tappamaton Negative participle: Used to convey impossibility (unkillable) and undoneness (not killed). Tappamaton mies means both "unkillable man" and "man (who is) not killed".

Each and every one of these participles can be used as adjectives, which means that some of them can be turned into nouns.

Finnish (adjective) tappavatapettavatappamaton
English (adjective) killingkillableunkillable (possibility) or not killed (undoneness)
Finnish (noun) tappavuustapettavuustappamattomuus
English (noun) killingnesskillabilityunkillability (possibility) or lack of killing (undoneness)

Hungarian

Hungarian uses adjectival and adverbial participles.

Adjectival participles (melléknévi igenév) can be one of these three types:

  • Present (active): olvas (read) - olvasó (reading), él (live) - élő (living)
  • Past (usually passive): zár (close) - zárt (closed)
  • Future (has a modal meaning): olvas (read) - olvasandó (to be read), fizet (pay) - fizetendő (to be paid)

Adverbial participles (határozói igenév) can be:

  • Imperfect: siet (hurry) - sietve (hurrying, i.e. in a hurrying manner)
  • Perfect: bemegy (go in) - bemenvén (having gone in) (this form is rarely used in modern Hungarian)

In Hungarian grammar the infinitive is also considered a kind of participle, namely the noun participle (főnévi igenév).

Turkic languages

Turkish

Participles are called sıfat-fiil (lit. adjective-verb) or ortaç in Turkish.[41]

Turkish participles consist of a verb stem and a suffix. Some participles may be conjugated, but some may not. Participles always precede the noun they are defining, as in English.

Participle suffixes, like many other suffixes in Turkish, change according to the vowel harmony and sandhi.

There are eight types of participle suffixes; -en, -esi, -mez, -ar, -di(k/ği) -ecek and -miş [42][43]

Eskimo-Aleut languages

Sireniki Eskimo

Sireniki Eskimo language, an extinct Eskimo–Aleut language, has separate sets of adverbial participles and adjectival participles. Different from in English, adverbial participles are conjugated to reflect the person and number of their implicit subjects; hence, while in English a sentence like "If I were a marksman, I would kill walruses" requires two full clauses (to distinguish the two verbs' different subjects), in Sireniki Eskimo one of these may be replaced with an adverbial participle (since its conjugation indicates the subject).

Constructed languages

Esperanto
Main article: Esperanto grammar: Participles

Esperanto has six different participle conjugations; active and passive for past, present and future. The participles are formed as follows:

Past Present Future
Active -inta -anta -onta
Passive -ita -ata -ota

For example, a falonta botelo is a bottle that will fall or is about to fall. A falanta botelo is one that is falling through the air. After it hits the floor, it is a falinta botelo. These examples use the active participles, but the usage of the passive participles is similar. A cake that is going to be divided is a dividota kuko. When it is in the process of being divided, it is a dividata kuko. Having been cut, it is now a dividita kuko.

These participles can be used in conjunction with the verb to be, esti, forming 18 compound tenses (9 active and 9 passive). However, this soon becomes complicated and often unnecessary, and is only frequently used when rigorous translation of English is required. An example of this would be la knabo estos instruita, or, the boy will have been taught. This example sentence is then in the future anterior.

When the suffix -o is used, instead of -a, then the participle refers to a person. A manĝanto is someone who is eating. A manĝinto is someone who ate. A manĝonto is someone who will eat. Also, a manĝito is someone who was eaten, a manĝato is someone who is being eaten, and a manĝoto is someone who will be eaten.

These rules hold true for all transitive verbs. Since copular and intransitive verbs do not have passive voice, their participle forms can only be active.

An informal and unofficial addition to these six are the participles for conditional forms, which use -unt- and -ut-. For example, parolunto refers to someone who would speak (or would have spoken), and a leguta libro is a book that would be read (or have been read). These unofficial participle forms are however very rarely used in practice, and more often as a linguistic joke than in a serious way.

See also

Notes
  1. SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms
  2. participium. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  3. μετοχή. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  4. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v.
  5. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/past%20participle
  6. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/present%20participle
  7. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/past_participle
  8. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/present_participle
  9. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/passive_participle
  10. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/active_participle
  11. Crystal, David. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.), pp. 351-352. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
  12. Huddleston, Rodney. (2002). In Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey K. Pullum (Eds.), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (pp. 78-81). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  13. Participles – Present, Past and Perfect. Lingolia. Retrieved from https://english.lingolia.com/en/grammar/verbs/participles
  14. Hewings, Martin. (2005). Future continuous and future perfect (continuous). In Advanced Grammar in Use (2nd ed.), p. 22. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  15. The Russian Participles. Part of “An Interactive On-line Reference Grammar — Russian” by Dr. Robert Beard.
  16. Menovshchikov, G.A.: Language of Sireniki Eskimos. Phonetics, morphology, texts and vocabulary. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow • Leningrad, 1964. Original data: Г.А. Меновщиков: Язык сиреникских эскимосов. Фонетика, очерк морфологии, тексты и словарь. Академия Наук СССР. Институт языкознания. Москва • Ленинград, 1964
  17. Kiss, Katalin E.; Kiefer, Ferenc; Siptár, Péter (2003). Új magyar nyelvtan. Osiris tankönyvek (in Hungarian) (3. kiadás ed.). Budapest: Osiris Kiadó. ISSN 1218-9855.
  18. Quirk et al., 3.9
  19. For example, Quirk et al., 4.12.
  20. Quirk et al., 3.15.
  21. Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1965), 21.
  22. Donatus, Ars Minor: de participio.
  23. cf. Wheelock, pp. 106ff and 112 note; Allen & Greenough, p. 315.
  24. e.g. Kennedy, Gildersleeve & Lodge, etc.
  25. Livy, 1.58.2
  26. Cicero, ad Atticum 9.2a.3.
  27. Cicero, pro Milone 28.
  28. Nepos, Lysander 3.4.
  29. Nepos, Hannibal 12.3.
  30. Maurice Grevisse, Le Bon Usage, 10th edition, § 776.
  31. "Spanish Perfect Tenses". Enforex.
  32. Smyth. A Greek grammar for colleges. § 2039.
  33. Shapiro, Michael C. (1989). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–246. ISBN 81-208-0475-9.
  34. Tokaj, Jolanta (2016-06-01). "A comparative study of participles, converbs and absolute constructions in Hindi and Medieval Rajasthani". Lingua Posnaniensis. 58. doi:10.1515/linpo-2016-0007.
  35. Subbarao, K.; Arora, Harbir (2009-01-01). "The Conjunctive Participle in Dakkhini Hindi-Urdu: Making the Best of Both Worlds*". 70: 359–386. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  36. Montaut, Annie (2018-09-10), "On the nature of the Hindi infinitive: History as an answer to its syntactic behavior?", Trends in Hindi Linguistics, pp. 115–146, ISBN 978-3-11-061079-6, retrieved 2020-07-03
  37. Campbell, George L. (1995). Compendium of the World's Languages. Great Britain: Routledge. pp. 225–229. ISBN 0-415-11392-X.
  38. Shapiro, Michael C. (2003). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt Ltd. p. 116. ISBN 81-208-0508-9.
  39. Shagal (Krapivina), Future participles in Russian: Expanding the participial paradigm
  40. Macedonian Grammar, Victor Friedman
  41. Ergin 309
  42. Ergin 310
  43. Dâsitân-ı Sultân Mahmûd Mesnevisi'nde Fiiller, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Osman Yıldız, May 2007 (PDF)

References
  • Participles from the American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996).
  • Quirk, R; Greenbaum, S; Leech, G.; Svartvik, J. (1972). A Grammar of Contemporary English. Longman.
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