participles

In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective, as in a ''laughing face''".

“Participle” is a traditional grammatical term from Greek and Latin that is widely used for corresponding verb forms in European languages and analogous forms in Sanskrit and Arabic grammar.

Cross-linguistically, participles may have a range of functions apart from adjectival modification. In European and Indian languages, the past participle is used to form the passive voice. In English, participles are also associated with periphrastic verb forms ( continuous and perfect) and are widely used in adverbial clauses. In non-Indo-European languages, ‘participle’ has been applied to forms that are alternatively regarded as converbs (see Sireniki Eskimo below), gerunds, gerundives, transgressives, and nominalised verbs in complement clauses. As a result, ‘participles’ have come to be associated with a broad variety of syntactic constructions.

Etymology

The word ''participle'' comes from classical Latin , from 'sharing, participation', because it shares certain properties of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The Latin grammatical term is a calque of the Greek grammatical term 'participation, participle'.

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

The linguistic term, ''past participle'', was coined circa 1798 based on its participial form, whose morphology equates to the regular form of preterite verbs. The term, ''present participle'', was first used circa 1864 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:
#past participle, which is regularly formed with an ''-ed'' suffix (e.g. ''looked'', ''ended'', ''tutored'') but has numerous irregular forms (e.g. ''broken'', ''made'', ''understood''); and
#present participle, which is formed with an ''-ing'' suffix (e.g. ''breaking'', ''making'', ''understanding'').
Some grammars further distinguish ''passive participles'' as often associated with passive voice versus ''active participles'' as often associated with e.g. the present progressive tense, but such linguistic distinctions are neither recognized nor employed on a universal basis.

Types of participle

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 they 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 modifying ''subject''. 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".

Participles are often used to form certain grammatical tenses or grammatical aspects. The two types of participle in Modern English are termed present participle and past participle, respectively (often also referred to as the ''-ing form'' and ''-ed/-en form''). The traditional terms are misleading because the participles do not necessarily correspond to tense: 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.
*By the time you get home I will have cleaned the house.

The first sentence is in the past tense (''were''), but a present participle expresses the progressive aspect (''be standing''). The second sentence is in the future tense (''will''), but a past participle is used for the perfect aspect (''have cleaned'').

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)

Some languages differentiate 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. Such languages include RussianThe Russian Participles
Part of “An Interactive On-line Reference Grammar — Russian” by Dr. Robert Beard. and other Slavic languages, Hungarian, and many Eskimo languages, such as Sireniki,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 which has a sophisticated participle system. Details can be found in the sections below or in the articles on the grammars of specific languages.

Grammatical descriptions vary in the way these are treated. Some descriptive grammars treat such adverbial and adjectival participles as distinct lexical categories, while others include them both in a single category of participles. 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.

Indo-European languages

Germanic 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:
* The ''present participle'', also sometimes called the ''active'', '' imperfect'', or ''progressive'' participle, takes the ending ''-ing'', for example ''doing'', ''seeing'', ''working'', ''running'', ''breaking'', ''understanding''. It is identical in form to the verbal noun and gerund (see below). The term ''present participle'' is sometimes used to include the gerund; the term "gerund–participle" is also used to indicate the verb form.
* 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'', ''broken'', ''understood'', ''put'', ''gone'', etc.

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

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

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

1. As an adjective used in an attributive sense:
* A broken window (i.e., one that has been broken)
* An interesting book (i.e., one that interests)
* An exciting adventure (i.e., one that excites)
* The attached files (i.e., those that are attached)
* A fallen tree (i.e., one that has fallen)
* Our fallen comrades (i.e., those who have fallen)

Additionally, participles that express an adjectivally attributive meaning can be affixed to form adverbs, such as ''interestingly'' and ''excitedly''.

2. In postpositive phrases. These are often regarded as functioning as a  reduced relative clause:
* A window broken by the wind (A window that was broken by the wind).
* A woman wearing a red hat (A woman who was wearing a red hat).
* The man standing over there is my uncle (The man who is standing over there is my uncle).
* We are a people clamoring for freedom (We are a people who are clamoring for freedom).

3. In an adverbial phrase. In the following, the  subject is understood to be the same as that of the main clause:
* Reviewing her bank statement, Ann started to cry (While she reviewed her bank statement, Ann started to cry).
* Having reviewed the bank statement, Ann started to cry (After she reviewed her bank statement, Ann started to cry).
* He shot the man, killing him (He shot the man and killed him).
* Maintained properly, wooden buildings can last for centuries (If/when they are maintained properly, wooden buildings can last for centuries).

With a different subject, placed before the participle:
* He and I having reconciled our differences, the project then proceeded smoothly (Because/after he and I had reconciled our differences, the project proceeded smoothly). (This is known as the nominative absolute construction.)

More generally as a clause or sentence modifier: 
* Broadly speaking, the project was successful. (See also  dangling participle.)

4. Participles are used to form periphrastic verb tenses:

The present participle forms the progressive aspect with the auxiliary verb ''be'': 

* Jim was sleeping.

The past participle forms the  perfect aspect with the auxiliary verb ''have'': 

* The chicken has eaten.

5. The past participle is used to form passive voice:
* The chicken was eaten.
Such passive participles can appear in an adjectival phrase: 
*The chicken eaten by the children was contaminated. 
Adverbially: 
*Eaten in this manner, the chicken presents no problem.
And in a nominative absolute construction, with a subject: 
*The chicken eaten, we returned home.

Note 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.

6. As a gerund. The gerund is traditionally regarded as 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:
*Flying planes can be dangerous.

When the meaning is "The practice of flying a plane is dangerous," ''flying'' functions as a gerund; when the danger concerns "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.

The following table summarises some of the uses of participles in English:

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. The verb form used for the perfect (or "supine") aspect is generally identical to the nominative neuter singular form of the past participle for all verbs. 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 deer 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.

In Norwegian, the present participle may be used to form adjectives or adverbs denoting the possibility or convenience of performing the action prescribed by the verb. For example:
* Var maten etande? (English: Was the food edible?) (or rather: Was the food any good?)
* Utan servo vert bilen fort ukøyrande. (English: Without power steering, the car soon becomes impossible to drive.) (Lit: un-drivable)
This construction is allowed in Nynorsk, but not in Bokmål, where suffixes like ''-elig'' or ''-bar'' are used instead.

Latin and Romance languages

Latin

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:

* 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 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.

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.''
"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''.
"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.''
"On that day he was going to return to Rome."
*''Occīsus est ā Thēbānīs.''
"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).''
"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.

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'' 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''). 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."

Hellenic languages

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. 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:

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

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

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

Indo-Aryan languages

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".''

Sanskrit

Much like Ancient Greek, Sanskrit has a wide array of participles.

Celtic languages

Cornish

In Cornish, an equivalent present participle construction to English is formed by using ''ow'' (''owth'' before vowels) with a verbal noun, e.g. ''Yma an den ow hwerthin'' ("The man is laughing"), and ''den ow hwerthin'' ("a laughing man"). Like Breton but unlike Welsh, Cornish also has verbal adjectives which are used similarly to English past participles, e.g. ''dehen molys'' ("clotted cream"), from the verbal noun ''mola'' "to clot".

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.

Slavic languages

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 �sɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ(to hear, imperfective aspect)

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

Verb: услышать �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ(to hear, perfective aspect)

*Past active: услышавший �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j"who has heard"
*Past passive: услышанный �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j"who has been heard"
*Adverbial past active: услышав �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf"having heard"

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

Bulgarian

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

Verb: правя ravja(to do, imperfective aspect):
*Present active: правещ ravešt*Past active aorist: правил ravil*Past active imperfect: правел ravel(only used in verbal constructions)
*Past passive: правен raven*Adverbial present active: правейки ravejki
Verb: направя apravja(to do, perfective aspect):
*Past active aorist: направил apravil*Past active imperfect: направел apravel(only used in verbal constructions)
*Past passive: направен apraven

Macedonian

Macedonian has completely lost or transformed the participles of Common Slavic, unlike the other Slavic languages. The following points may be noted:
* 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 akom(greedy);
* past active participle: there is only one remnant of the past active participle, which is the word бивш ivš(former). However, this word is often replaced with the word поранешен oranešen(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.

Baltic languages

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 e, different subjectis walking" present tense), ''ėjus'' (past tense), ''eisiant'' (future tense), ''eidavus'' (past frequentative tense), the semi-participle ''eidamas'' ("while e, the same subjectis 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

The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (''’ism al-fā‘il'' اسم الفاعل) and a passive participle (''’ism al-maf‘ūl'' 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.

Hebrew

Like Arabic, Hebrew has two types of participles (בינוני ''bênônî''): an active participle (בינוני פועל ''bênônî pô‘ēl'') and a passive participle (בינוני פעול ''bênônî pā‘ûl''). These participles are inflected for gender and number, but not case, unlike Arabic. The active participle takes a variety of syntactic roles, such as a verb in present tense, a noun, and an adjective.

Hebrew has a syntactic construction of the verb "to be" (הָיָה) ''hayá'' in the past tense, and the active participle that cognates to the past progressive tense in English. For example, the word עבדתי ''avádti'' means "I worked", and הייתי עובד ''hayíti ovéd'' means "I was working". Another use of this syntactic structure is equivalent to "used to" in English. For example, דויד בילדותו היה גר בארצות הברית ''davíd b'yaldutó hayá gar b'arcót habrít'' (David in his childhood used to live in the United States).

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).

The participles work in the following way:

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

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.

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'' Ergin 310 Dâsitân-ı Sultân Mahmûd Mesnevisi'nde Fiiller, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi
, Osman Yıldız, May 2007 (PDF)

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

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

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.

See also

* Attributive verb
* Gerund
* Grammar
* Hanging participle
*Nonfinite verb
*Transgressive (linguistics)
*Converb

Notes

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.

External links

*Ernest De Witt Burton: Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek

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Syntactic entities

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