Adverbial modifier of manner

The gerund is used with by and in:

• They escaped by sliding down a rope.

• The whole evening was spent in deciding whether to go or not.

Adverbial modifier of purpose

The gerund is introduced by for.

• It turned out that the suitcase had been used for carrying drugs.

Adverbial modifier of cause

The gerund is introduced by for fear of, owing to, for:

• They felt tired for having walked the whole day (formal, literary use).

• They did not mention it for fear of hurting her feelings.

Adverbial modifier of concession

The gerund is introduced by in spite of and despite (more formal):

• Despite spending her childhood in a village she does not know
much about country life.

Adverbial modifier of condition

The gerund is introduced by without.

• You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs (a proverb).

Adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances

The gerund is introduced by without:

• She went by without looking up.

In all the above-mentioned functions we can find gerundial phrases, while a single gerund is rather rare.

THE PARTICIPLES

FORMS

Participle I: the forms of participle I coincide with those of the gerund:

INDEFINITE ACTIVE PARTICIPLE I: reading

• Coming into the room, she saw her brother.

PERFECT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE I: having read

• Having finished his homework, he could go out.

INDEFINITE PASSIVE PARTICIPLE I: being read

• The car being damaged, he couldn't continue the journey.

PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE I: having been read

• Having been insulted several times, she decided to put her foot
down.

Participle I Perfect both Active and Passive is used when it is necessary to emphasize that the action expressed by the participle precedes the one expressed by the finite verb. Participle I Perfect is mostly used to express temporal and causal relationships. For more detail see Participle I: Functions.

Participle II of most verbs has only one form. If the verb is regular
we add -ed (-d) to the infinitive: work — worked. Participle II of
irregular verbs is their "third" form. It should be noted that some
irregular verbs have two different forms of Participle II:
awake: awaked/awoken show: showed/shown

burn: burned/burnt smell: smelled/smelt

 

 

МинченковА. Г.

dream: dreamed/dreamt	speed: speeded/sped
hang: hanged/hung	spell: spelled/spelt
lean: leaned/leant	spill: spilled/spilt
leap: leaped/leapt	swell: swelled/swollen
learn: learned/learnt	tread: trodden/trod
light: lighted/lit	wake: waked/woken

mow: mowed/mown

Note also that the form hanged is used when hang means 'to kill somebody by tying a rope around their neck'.

Some verbs have different participle forms for verbal and adjectival use:

• You have drunk too much - a drunk /drunken sailor;

• He has shaved and washed - a clean-shaven man;
- The trousers have shrunk - shrunken trousers;

• The ship has sunk - a sunken ship.

STRUCTURES WITH THE PARTICIPLES

Participle I and Participle II can be used:

a) singly: • She went away crying.

• The tree was cut down.

b) in a phrase: • Do you know the man standing

At the entrance?

• Shaken by the news, she stood
motionless.

c) in a construction: • I saw them stealing apples in my

garden.

• She found the lock broken.

The participles can form four predicative constructions:

1) Objective Participial Construction;

2) Subjective Participial Construction;

3) Absolute Participial Construction;

4) Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction.

Verbals

OBJECTIVE PARTICIPIAL CONSTRUCTION (OPC)

As with other non-finite constructions the participle in the OPC is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or an object pronoun which denotes a person or a thing performing the action denoted by the participle:

• I heard them talking loudly.

The OPC with participle I is used after the following groups of verbs:

a) verbs of perception: feel, hear, notice, observe, overhear,
perceive, see, smell, spot, spy, watch:

' They noticed a ship approaching the island.

• Suddenly he spied a shark coming towards them (formal).

• I overheard them quarrelling.

The participial construction is used instead of the infinitive construction to refer to part of an event, to emphasize the idea of process.

b) verbs of discovery: catch, discover, find:

• She caught them eating jam.

The infinitive construction after find means something found out by investigation:

• They found him to be innocent.

The participial construction denotes something discovered by chance:

• They found a man lying in the ditch.

Note that it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between the participial construction and an attributive phrase with the participle as an attribute.

c) causative verbs get, have:

• I will get Ihave the house looking nice.

• He had me swimming in a week.

 

МинченковА. Г.

Verbals

 

 

The OPC with participle II is used after: a) perceptual verbs: see, hear, feel: • She heard her name mentioned.

b) volitional verbs and expressions: would like, need, want:

• I want this watch repaired quickly. • You need your eyesight tested.

c) causative verbs: get, have:

• She had her car serviced.

d) the verb consider:

• I consider the case closed.

NB! The function of the OPC in a sentence is always complex object.

SUBJECTIVE PARTICIPIAL CONSTRUCTION (SPC)

In this construction the participle is in predicate relation to the subject of the sentence expressed by a noun or a pronoun:

• She was seen running away.

The function of the construction is Complex Subject.

Participle I in this construction is mostly used with perceptual verbs and verbs of discovery, while participle II is used with verbs of discovery:

• He was found talking to himself in a whisper.

• The girl was discovered murdered.

ABSOLUTE PARTICIPIAL CONSTRUCTION (APC)

In the APC participle I or participle II is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case. The APC is used, along with adverbial clauses, when we want to introduce a subject different from the subject of the finite verb:

• The weather being cold, they decided not to go to the lake.
(Cf As the weather was cold they decided not to go to the lake.)

Participle I Indefinite is used in this construction to mention something that is going on at the same time as the event described by the finite verb, or to mention a fact that is relevant to the fact stated by the finite verb:

• Her voice trembling, she asked him: "Where am I to go now?"

• The door being locked, he could not get in.

Participle I Perfect or Participle II are used to mention something which happened before the event described by the finite verb:

• The question having been asked, the minister had to answer it
somehow.

The Absolute Participial Construction can function as an adverbial modifier of time, cause, attendant circumstances and condition (with permitting and failing). Participle I Perfect is used mostly in the first two functions, which very often overlap:

• The text having been analyzed, she proceeded to write the sum­mary (adverbial modifier of time).

• The lights having gone out, they had to go to bed (adverbial modifier of cause).

• She slowly went to the door, her leg still aching (adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances).

• Time permitting, I will stay there longer (adverbial modifier of condition).

When the APC functions as an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances, the preposition with can be added to it, so that we have the Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction:

• The old woman stood up, with tears running down her face.

• I wonder if you could do that with your eyes closed.

Participle I Indefinite and Participle II are generally used after with. Both the Absolute Construction and the Prepositional Absolute Construction can be used without a participle:

• She stood very erect, her body absolutely stiff with fury.

• She came into the room, her face pale.

• He walked by, with his dog by his side.

МинченковА. Г.

Verbals

 

Note: Apart from a few stereotyped phrases like everything considered, present company excepted, weather permitting, god willing absolute constructions are rare in modern English and occur mostly in written descriptive language.

FUNCTIONS

ATTRIBUTE

In this function we find Participle I Indefinite (Active or Passive) and Participle II.

Participle I

Participle I as an attribute can modify nouns and some pronouns:

• Those working have no time for that.

It can be used both in pre-position (when it precedes the noun) or in post-position (when it follows it). In pre-position Participle I is usually used singly:

• She could not stand the blinding lights.

The use of single Participle I in pre-position may present a problem, for not every participle can function in this way. In fact, only those participles that indicate a permanent or characteristic feature can be used in pre-position. For example, we can say reassuring smile (look), but it is hardly possible to say * reassuring girl.

The thing is that a person can not be permanently reassuring, but when we say something like a reassuring face we characterize the face, classify it. Likewise, we say a wandering minstrel (— 'one who does it habitually'), but not *wandering person. Compare also shocking woman and shocking words. The first one is appropriate only if the woman always shocks other people, but inappropriate if she is saying something shocking to somebody at the moment. It should be noted also that Participle I in pre-position is commonly used with the indefinite article:

• A barking dog woke him up (classifying meaning of the article).

With the definite article Participle I is used when the article has a generic meaning (which is again connected with the idea of permanence):

• The beginning student may find it difficult to understand.

Summing up, we can say that participle I in pre-position is incompatible with anything temporary, taking place or being true only at the moment of speech or over a short period of time.

Participle I with accompanying words is widely used in post-position instead of attributive clauses:

• People coming to see her could not believe their eyes (= People who came...).

• John, fishing next to Mike, caught a big fish (— John, who was fishing...).

However, we can't replace a clause with a participial phrase when:

1) it refers to a repeated action or a habit:

• People who read newspapers always know what is going on in
the world.

2) It contains a verb that describes mental states: know, believe,
like:

• Those who believe it will believe anything.

3) It refers to an event completed before what is described in the
rest of the sentence:

• The boy who went with us got lost on the way home.

Note: Special attention should be paid to the fact that Participle I Perfect can't be used in the function of an attribute. Sentences like *The war having begun in 1337 was to last for more than a hundred years are incorrect.

■

 

 

Verbals

Their occurrence in translations by Russian learners of English is explained by the frequent use of the Russian Perfect Participle in the attributive function in spoken and written discourse. In English, however, this idea can be expressed only by a clause:

• The war that began in 1337...

■ 2) Participle II

Participle II as an attribute can also be used in pre-position and in post-position.

In pre-position Participle II can be used singly and in a phrase. As to single Participle II, the basic principles determining its use are the same as those operating with Participle I single. Yet, Participle II has its own peculiarities. First of all, Participle II of intransitive verbs is rarely used in pre-position: *the arrived guests. The exceptions include participles of a few words: accumulated, dated, escaped, faded, fallen, retired, swollen, vanished, wilted: a fallen tree, a retired colonel, wilted flowers. These participles always have an active meaning. Also, when Participle II of an intransitive verb is modified by an adverb it can be used in pre-position: the newly arrived guests.

Participle II of many transitive verbs can be used in pre-position. However, participles which refer to an action rather than a state are much less commonly used. Cf:. a damaged car, a broken cup, but *the built plant, *the mentioned book. The use of many participles varies according to the context; they are more common in pre-position when they have permanent reference, or when they are modified by an adverb:

• a married man (permanent characteristic);

• the newly-born baby;

• the above-mentioned writer;

• the recently-built plant.

A participial phrase used in pre-position is always detached and has an additional meaning of an adverbial modifier:

• Annoyed by his words, she went out of the room (reason).

Participle II in post-position can be used singly:

• Money lent is money spent (proverb).

or in a phrase:

• They came to a tree broken by the recent storm.

Participial phrase in post-position can also be detached:

• His comedies, loved by many people all over the world, have
been translated into many languages.

Note: There are a number of participles which are normally used in post-position:

the items taken the money sent

the letters received all the people involved

the grant obtained

— visited • the place visited

— left

— taken

— sent

— spent

— shown

— received

— involved

— questioned

— granted

— obtained

— found

— discovered • the drawbacks discovered

This is because these participles refer to something dynamic, not permanent.

ADVERBIAL MODIFIER

Participle II in this function is always preceded by a conjunction.

Adverbial modifier of time

When there is no change of subject we can use the participle instead of an adverbial clause of time:

• Coming into the room she saw that somebody had broken the
window (= when she came... she saw...)

 

 

МинченковА. Г.

Verbals

 

Participle I Perfect is sometimes used in this function in written English — when it is necessary to emphasize that the action expressed by the participle precedes the action expressed by the finite verb:

• Having finished his breakfast, he rushed out of the room.

However, it should be noted that we use the perfect participle mostly when otherwise the sentence would sound ambiguous. The above example, if modified, would contain ambiguity:

• Finishing his breakfast, he rushed out of the room.

So, on the whole, Participle I Indefinite is preferred both when two actions take place at the same time:

• Walking past the shop, he noticed his reflection in the shop
window.

and when one action follows the other:

• Leaping out of bed, he dressed very quickly.

Participle I as an adverbial modifier of time can be preceded by the conjunctions when and while:

• She fell while/when skiing downhill.

• You should be very careful when/while dealing with such people.

• She listened attentively while pretending not to.

Participle II as an adverbial modifier of time is introduced by the conjunctions when, while, and once:

• Once roused he would not cool down.

• When analyzed the theory proved to be false.

Adverbial modifier of cause

Both Participle I (Indefinite and Perfect) and Participle II can be used in this function:

• He changed his mind, realizing that the whole thing was useless.

Sentences with Participle I as an adverbial modifier of cause belong to formal style:

• Being ill, he could not go to work (As he was ill...).

• Having once heard him lie, she could not believe him any longer.

Participial phrase with Participle I often has causal meaning when it premodifies a noun/pronoun, so that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the function of an attribute and that of an adverbial modifier of cause:

• Frightened by the thunder, the dog began to howl.