Participial adjectives are important language items which appear in academic writing frequently. These adjectives perform a great role in the expression of meaning and in the construction of phrasal structures. However, their employment in writing demands an in-depth knowledge of verbs, active and passive constructions along with the use of related items like prepositions. For the provision of assistance to the learning writers, various aspects, and subtleties of the use of participial adjectives have presented in this post.
1. Present (-ing Verb) and Past (-ed Verb)Participles
A participle can either end in -ing, -ed or has irregular forms. The examples of participles that end in -ing are supporting, challenging, seeking, etc. These words are also known as present participles. Similarly, the examples of participles that end in -ed are displaced, deceived, annoyed, etc. However, some participles do not end in -ing or -ed. These are known as irregular form of verbs, e.g. broken, seen, known, etc. The participles that end in -ed or stay as irregular form of the verb are usually called past participles. A participle may stay as a component of a verb phrase as in is shaking, have purchased, and was eaten. A participle as an adjective, e.g., working paper, rejected proposal, known facts, etc., may be a part of a noun phrase.
1.1 The Role of Participles
When a participle stays before a noun, it is a participial adjective, whether it is present participle (-ing form) or past participle (-ed form). Further, when -ing participles stay before nouns and describe them, the head noun has active role, e.g. ‘entertaining actor’, i.e. the actor that entertains. When – ed participle stays an adjective, the head noun is in a passive role, e.g. ‘purchased item’, i.e. the items that were purchased.
2. Participial Adjectives
There are many -ing and -ed participles that stay as full adjectives, e.g. running water, walking distance, tried options, considered opinion, etc. However, there are some similar adjectives that do not evolve from verbal words. Such adjectives evolve from nouns like skilled, interested, etc. Participial adjectives can also be in the form of Hyphenated -ing and -ed words. Examples of these include, well-known, law- abiding, easy-going, quick-witted, etc.
3. Past (-ed Verbs) Participle Adjectives
An -ed participle adjectives can have both active and passive meanings. When it has passive meaning, a causal noun in a by phrase construction follows it. For example:
a. A man down-trodden by his circumstances was helped to improve his life.
Contrarily, a different prepositional phrase can be used after many -ed adjective to replace causal by phrase. For example:
b. My brother tired of his manual tasks was given a managerial position.
In this example, his manual tasks are a cause of his being tired. Further, the positioning of this phrase after of instead of by indicates that -ed participle, i.e., tired is staying as an adjective.
It is important to note that only those -ed words (e.g., helped, encouraged, assisted, supported, etc.) which are not adjectives can take by after them. For example, supported can have by as in “The injured person supported by a passerby was latter shifted to hospital.”
3.1 Choices of Prepositions after Past (-ed Verbs) Participle Adjectives
These -ed participle adjectives have orientation to describe people or objects. When -ed past participle adjectives stay as predicative adjectives, they select prepositions after them according to the context and proposition. For example:
a. I am concerned about the present political situation.
b. I am concerned with a water supply company.
a. People were disappointed by the security officials.
b. People were disappointed in the security officials’ performance.
3.2 Use of Past (-ed Verbs) Participles as Adjectives
An -ed or irregular past participle can be used as an adjective. It is important to confirm the adjective status of this participle. It can be done by considering whether the related verb is transitive or intransitive. If the related verb is transitive (i.e., has an object), the adjective status of the past participle is unclear. On the other hand, if the related verb is intransitive (i.e., has no object), the adjective status of -ed participle is confirmed. For example, in “purchased articles”, purchased can be or cannot be an adjective because it can be used as a transitive verb. In “learned person” learned has an adjective status on account of its intransitivity as a verb.
3.3 Past Participles (-ed Verbs) as Adjectives
Some past participles i.e., stative (state-describing) -ed verbs have related adjectives and others do not have. Fo example, the verb “cleared”, has an associated adjective “clear”. On the other hand, the stative verbs such as blocked cannot have block as a related adjective. A simple way to recognize associated adjectives is to use them after some linking verb as a predicative adjective. For example:
a. The road is clear.
b. *The road is block.
c. The road is blocked
‘Block’ could not go in (b). After a BE verb, the past participle blocked as an adjective can be placed as in example (c).
The past participles that have associated adjectives are slowed, roughened, narrowed, freed, filled and their respective adjectives are slow, rough, narrow, free, and full.
A very important point to note here is that the past participle verbs, whose base forms can stay as their associated adjectives, can stay as participle verbs only. On the other hand, the past participle verbs whose base forms cannot stay as adjectives, they have two roles, i.e., they can function as past participle verbs as well as adjectives. For example, the verb constructed can stay as a past participle verb as well as an adjective. For example:
a. They constructed a big house.
b. They sold their recently constructed house.
3.4 Pre & Post Position Specific Meaning of -ed Participle Adjectives
Past participle (-ed participle) adjectives furnish varied information on the basis of their position related to their head noun. Pre-modifying adjectives provide information about the type, qualities, or characteristics of the head noun. Thus, they make the head noun more specific or detailed. On the other hand, the post-modifying adjectives (mostly reduced or condensed form of relative clauses) provide the head noun with supplementary information. For example:
a. The data collected from industry was not considered sufficient.
b. The collected data was first organized and later analyzed.
In example (a) the post posed past-participle adjective, i.e., collected indicates that the data are partial and local in nature. In example (b) the pre-posed past participle adjective, i.e., collected indicates integration, comprehensibility and permanence of the head noun data.
4. Function of -ed Participle Adjectives
The participial adjectives ending in -ed (e.g., frustrated, refused, confused, etc.) function to describe emotional or resultant states. These states or conditions arise from the prior actions (Biber et al. ,1999) and (Quirk et al., 1985). Another important point about these -ed adjectives is that they function both as verbs and adjectives. Hence, these adjectives play a crucial role of descriptive and emotive expressions. For example:
a. The frustrated employee stood in front of his boss silently.
b. The refused application was dropped in the dustbin.
c. The most advanced version of this software is available now.
5. Stativity and Dynamicity of -ed Participle Adjectives
An adjective, e.g. free (a base form of a past participle verb freed) is a stative adjective. It is so because, it is permanent state. In other words, it is not action related. If a past participle verb (constructed) is used as an adjective, e.g. in a constructed house, it is a dynamic adjective. This is so because it is action related quality.
As mentioned above, some past participles have associated adjectives, e.g. roughened is a past participle verb and its associate adjective is rough. If we focus on was roughened, it can be interpreted in two ways. It indicates two positions. One is dynamic, i.e., a change from smooth to rough; the other is stative i.e., no change. Was roughened suggests recent roughing, whereas was rough does not indicate when the roughing occurred. Next, was shattered (shattered with no related adjective) can be interpreted in three ways i.e. the adjective one of “state that could be permanent”. The other two interpretation are similar to the ones specified in case of was roughed.
6 – Present Participle (-ing) Adjectives
Present participle adjectives can be derived from transitive verbs. If an -ing form is derived from a transitive verb and can be placed after be without object, it is an adjective. For example:
a. Unprescribed medicine can be killing.
b. A path through a forest is always enticing.
In the examples given above killing and enticing are adjectives because the verbs kill and entice both are transitive verbs. If objects like patients and nature lovers respectively followed them, these words would be ordinary verbs.
Commonly – the –ing words derived from intransitive verbs like growing, rising, happening, coming, leaving, etc. cannot stay as adjectives. No doubt, there are some exceptions, e.g., shining, glowing, fluctuating, etc. Contrarily, there are a number of adjectives with -ing words such as fleeting, boring, cunning, fleeting, lasting, etc. that are not directly derived from a verb.
6.1 Participle (-ing Word) as a Verb or an Adjective
Present participles, i.e., -ing verbs may function either as a verb or an adjective in a sentence. However, it is not easy for learners to recognize whether -ing word is staying as a verb or an adjective. For confirmation, a test can be employed, i.e., if the -ing words are able to follow very, they are adjectives and if not, they are present participles. In this respect -ing adjectives are different from ordinary adjectives. The ordinary adjectives follow very only if they are gradable (a quality that can stay in different quantities). On the other hand, -ing participles adjectives take much, when these need to express quality that can exist in different amounts, for example, much shining. Similar is the case with -ed participles. However, very can stay before -ed participles when these accompany with by phrase. For example:
a. The plants were very damaged by the rain.
However, when these participles stay as adjectives and are non-gradable, very cannot stay before them, e.g., killed.
In sum, this post first presents an introduction to participles and next puts participles into categories, i.e., past (-ed) participles and present (-ing) participles. After this, the role and function of the participles as adjectives have been dealt with. Later, pre- and post-position specific meanings of these adjectives have been specified. In addition, stativity and dynamicity of -ed participle adjectives have been discussed. In the end, present (-ing) participles have been described along with their role as a verb or adjective. The description and classification of participial adjectives is an area in which the writers have to deal with subtle knowledge points. However, the understanding and command at the use of these constructions prove very productive in academic writing.
Sources Cited
- Biber, D., et al. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Ltd.
2. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. New York: Longman.
