Participle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns.
Contents |
[edit] Participles in Modern English
English verbs have two participles. One, called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, is identical to the gerund, and indeed the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund; the other, called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, is usually identical to the verb's preterite (past tense) form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ. Examples of participle formation include:
Verb |
Preterite (past) |
Past Participle |
Present Participle |
Regular/ Irregular |
| talk | talked | talking | regular | |
| do | did | done | doing | irregular |
| say | said | saying | ||
| eat | ate | eaten | eating | |
| write | wrote | written | writing | |
| beat | beat | beaten | beating | |
The present participle in English is active. It has the following uses:
- forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping.
- modifying a noun: Let sleeping dogs lie.
- modifying a verb or sentence: Broadly speaking, the project was successful.
- functioning as a noun (see gerund): Your job description does not include sleeping past noon.
The past participle has both active and passive uses:
- forming the perfect aspect: The chicken has eaten.
- forming the passive voice: The chicken was eaten.
- modifying a noun, active sense (certain intransitive verbs only): our fallen comrades
- modifying a noun, passive sense: the attached files
- modifying a verb or sentence, passive sense: Seen from this perspective, there is no easy solution.
As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjectives), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
- Please bring all the documents required.
- The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable.
[edit] Participles in other languages
[edit] Latin
Compared with English, Latin has an additional future tense participle:
- present active participle: educāns "teaching"
- perfect passive participle: educatus "(having been) taught"
- future active participle: educātūrus "about to teach"
- future passive participle: educāndus "(necessary) to be taught"
Latin participles decline like adjectives.
[edit] Old English
- Old English ended present participles with -ind. In the East Midlands dialect, it merged with -ing, which originally only named actions.
- Past participles are marked with a ge- prefix, as is done today in Dutch and High German.
[edit] Lithuanian
Among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian language is unique for having thirteen different participial forms of the verb, that 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 form "einąs/einantis" ("going, walking", present tense), the passive participle form "einamas" ("being walked", present tense), the adverbial participle "einant" ("while it is being walked"), the semi-participle "eidamas" ("while [he is/was] going, walking") and the participle of necessity "eitinas" ("that which needs to be walked"). The first three of those five are inflected by tense, while the active, passive and the semi- participles are inflected by gender and the active, passive and necessity ones are inflected by case.
[edit] Interlingua
In Interlingua, active participles end in -nte. For example, dansa ("dances") gives dansante ("dancing"). Passive participles end in -te: dansate ("danced"). In Interlingua, like in English, the perfect aspect is formed using a form of the verb haber ("to have") plus the passive participle; for example, haber dansate is "to have danced".
- Further information: Interlingua grammar
[edit] French
There are two basic participles:
- Present participle: formed with the verb root + ant. Eg, marchant "walking", étant "being"
- Past participle: formation varies according to verb group. Eg: marché "walked", été "been", vendu "sold". May require agreement.
Compound participles are possible:
- Present perfect participle: ayant appelé "having called", étant mort "having died"
- Passive perfect participle: étant vendu "being sold, having been sold"
[edit] Spanish
In Spanish, the present participle (el gerundio) of a verb is generally formed with one of the suffixes -ando, -iendo; the past participle (el participio) is generally formed with one of the suffixes -ado, -ido.
Traditionally, Spanish grammar has regarded the present participle not as an adjective, but as an adverb, and it does not change form to agree with any noun in gender or number. Nonetheless, it is used in much the same ways as the (adjective) present participle in English; for example, Spanish's equivalent of English's progressive aspect (e.g., to be doing) is formed with a combination of the verb estar (to be in a transient sense) and the present participle of the main verb (e.g., estar haciendo).
By contrast, the past participle is considered an adjective, and agrees with a noun in gender and number, except when used to express the perfect aspect (e.g., to have done, which in Spanish is haber hecho).
[edit] Esperanto
In Esperanto each transitive verb has six participles, one with each of two voices (active and passive) and each of three tenses (past, present and future). Some speakers have also analogously constructed two conditional participles, which are not in widespread use and are not officially sanctioned by the Akademio de Esperanto, but which are nonetheless readily understood by speakers of the language. Intransitive verbs have all the same active participles, but of course cannot have passive participles. Participles in Esperanto may be adjectives ending in -a(j)(n) (depending on case and number), or adverbs ending in -e.
[edit] Kinds of participles in various languages
[edit] Adverbial and adjectival
In some languages, a distinction between adverbial participle and adjectival participle can be made. Among these is Esperanto. See причастие and деепричастие in Russian grammar, or határozói igenév and melléknévi igenév in Hungarian grammar. Also many Eskimo languages make such a distinction, see for details e.g. the sophisticated participle system of Sireniki Eskimo.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Participles from the American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996).
