041 WHY do we use PAST PARTICIPLES?

Speakers and writers, sometimes, have a compulsion to describe persons/things i.e. nouns. They may find it difficult to identify/recall a suitable adjective, owing to shortage of adjectives in their own active vocabulary or in the vocabulary of the language. A practice of using the past tense forms of the verbs as adjectives, might have started, consequently. This is my guess.

IMPORTANT
*Past participles have a passive sense. The described noun should have received the result of the transitive. Transitive verbs work well, as past participles.

Example: printed paper = paper which has been / was printed.

*Intransitive verbs do not have passive voice. They, therefore, serve less as past participles.

Example: dead person = person who died.

WHAT IS PARSING?

Parsing = dividing a sentence into parts and describing the grammar of each word or part.

Question:
"He was defeated."
"He was a defeated person."
How should we parse the word 'defeated' in these two sentences?

Ans: What type of person was he? - 'A defeated person'. Here the word defeated is a past participle.

Should we take the phrase "was defeated" as one verb? (was- supporting verb, defeated- main verb). We can do this.

Alternative: The suporting verbs 'is' and 'was' have the value of 'be', 'been', 'being'. They indicate existence of somebody or something (Sanskrit: 'bhavati' = exist; 'asti' = is.) Now, what is the condition of the existence of 'he'? Ans: 'defeated condition/state'. Hence we can take a view that 'defeated' has a double role of being main verb as well as the adjective.

We can see this clearly, while using a natural adjective like 'strong'.

He is strong. (Here 'strong' is not a verbal adjective i.e. participle. It is a straight adjective-word.)

Summary: We have many choices. 1) Use natural adjectives, if we have vocabulary. 2) Use a present participle, where the action is continuing. 3) Use a past participle where the action is complete and the noun is the receiver of the action. 4) Use adjective phrases i.e. use phrases as adjectives. 5) Use adjective clauses i.e. use clauses as adjectives.

Using phrases and clauses, makes sentences, clumsy and lengthy, because we use more words. But, sometimes, we cannot avoid, because the listener's/reader's passive vocabulary may be limited.

Example: We cannot say to a five year old child: "You are a procrasting person". The child may have a vocabulary of about 500 words only. We have to rewrite the sentence to bring it within the child's vocabulary.

Literary masters like Dr. Samuel Johnson, Milton, Shakespeare have used every possible method and technique in describing the subjects and objects of their discourse.

We have, a need to write crisply, in these days. Hence, we may have to follow simple sentence structures like SV (Subject-Verb), SVO (Subject-verb-object), SVPO (Subject-verb-preposition-pObject).

Now, the quiz part:-

CHOICE BOX
1 Edged
2 threatened
3 confessed
4 uttered
5 bandaged
6 entangled
7 enraged
8 enlightened
9 endeared
10 gained

QUESTION BOX
Sentences 1 to 4 use attributive adjectives. Sentences 5 and 6 use complementary adjectives. Sentences 7 and 8 have annexed adjectives (adjective following its noun). Sentences 9 and 10 employ attributive adjectives.
1 An ___ed orphan loves its mentor.
2 An ___ed urban transport policy cannot ignore the pedestrians.
3 An ___ed wife can kick her husband; or vice versa.
4 An ___ed fish has to die.
5 She wants to kiss; but her lips are ___ed.
6 The law pays little regard to words rashly ____.
7 A fault ____ed is half redressed.
8 A penny saved is a penny ___ed.
9 A ____ed blow is seldom given.
10 Children and fools must not play with ___ed tools.

SUGGESTED ANSWERS:1- endeared ,2- enlightened,3- enraged, 4- entangled, 5- bandaged, 6- uttered, 7- confessed, 8- gained, 9- threatened, 10- edged.

ONE THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUESTION
Will we be/ Are we- in active state or passive state, when we exist? We may believe that we are in passive state, if we construe that God has placed us on this Earth in a living state.

Another view: The act of our being born, may not be an act of our choice. The act of choosing to continue to exist (live?) is an active decision, because we can, if we have the courage (and need?) to exercise the option of choosing to die. We can live in real 'active voice', if we imbibe some atheist thinking.

I shall not impose these ideas, anyway. I place these, just for your info.

039 ADJECTIVES USED IN THE FILM 'CINDERELLA- EVER AFTER'

"Cinderella- Ever After" is an amazing film with Drew Barrimore in the title role.

This script has about 1500 sentences. Most of these sentences are very short and crisp. The adjectives used are, by and large, are of the common variety. But, they have been used quite effectively.

Here is an analysis of the adjectives used in the film's script.

Commonly used adjectives such as - big, small, great, safe, simple - I have left out.

Some of the important adjectives culled by me from the film are:-

1- absurd ,
2- astonishing ,
3- careful ,
4- certain ,
5- clumsy ,
6- even ,
7- exciting ,
8- festive ,
9- fuzzy ,
10- insidious ,
11- known ,
12- mighty ,
13- pathetic ,
14- rabid ,
15- remarkable ,
16- royal ,
17- second ,
18- selfish ,
19- slippery ,
20- soft ,
21- telling ,
22- valuable ,
23- waiting ,
24- wealthy ,
25- whispering ,
26- wild ,
27- willing ,
28- wonderful.

Here is a small quiz based on the adjectives used in the film:

Fill in the blanks, selecting appropriate words from the Choice Box.

SELECTION BOX:
Addicted ,
dangerous ,
grateful ,
horrible ,
insidious ,
lucky ,
natural ,
perfect ,
little ,
secret

QUESTION BOX:
1- You ____ little snipe.,
2- Excuse me, Sire, but there is nothing ___ about it.
3- (Henry) Do you really think there is only one ____ mate?
4- Of all the _____ jokes, making your mother a Countesse...,
5- Then, let's say, God puts two people on earth, and they are ____ enough to find one another.
6- He was _____ to the written word.
7- I was very _____ to her.
8- I had hoped to present a ____ lady.
9- Baroness, you are on ____ ground.,
10- You tire me out. Don't want to let that happen. A ____ scream so loud. Why did you let that happen?

SUGGESTED ANSWERS: 1: horrible 2: natural. 3: perfect. 4: insidious. 5: lucky. 6. addicted. 7. grateful. 8. little. 9. dangerous. 10. secret.

038 ADJECTIVES USED IN THE FILM 'AMERICA'S SWEET-HEARTS'

012 ADJECTIVES USED IN THE FILM 'AMERICA'S SWEET-HEARTS'

Adjectives embellish nouns. Writers use nouns either as subjects or objects in a sentence. Bare mentioning of subjects and objects in a sentence do not often present a complete picture of them. Describing them, using adjectives, makes them contentful.

Sometimes, adjectives make sentences lengthy. Yet, they are important as content words.

I furnish below a list of some adjectives used in the film "America's Sweet-Hearts", a Julia Roberts and Catherin Zeta-Jones movie. The list is interesting.

Alike,amazing,awake,beautiful,bright,bright,busy,calm,charming,clear,comfortable,
complete,confused,cool,crazy,cut,cute,cute,dead,deep,delicate,delightful,different,
difficult,dirty,dramatic,dry,early,entertaining,even,excited,fabulous,fair,fantastic,fast,
fat,few,fine,first,free,fresh,full,funny,future,gentle,gorgeous,grateful,great,green,
half,handsome,happy,hard,healthy,high,holistic,horrible,hot,huge,hungry,hurt,icky,
important,incredible,jealous,kind,lame,last,late,left,light,living,loud,lovely,lying,married,material,mean,near,nervous,nice,open,past,perfect,plain,possible,powerful,precious,
present,pretty,psychotic,public,puffy,quiet,ready,real,red,responsible,rich, ridiculous, right, romantic,rough,round,sad,safe,same,second,serious,shocking,shut,sick,smiling,spiritual,
standing,straight, strange,strong,stupid,sweet,talented,tall,tan,tart,tasty,tender,tense,tense,terrible,
terrific,thin,tired,tough,true,unbelievable,understood,upset,utter,valuable,waiting,warm,
whole,wild,wise,worried,wrong,young,free,true.

Here is a small review-quiz based on the sentences used in the film: Fill-in the blanks with suitable adjectives and ocmpare the adjectives used by you with those used in the film by the actors.

Please bring errors and corrections to my notice.

1: What was said about my penis is completely _____.
2: You're just asking an _____ lot.
3: Hi, Gwen, you look _____, tonight.
4: Must've been _____, working with Hal Weidmann.
5: l have beautiful bags that are _____, for the press.
6: All of a sudden, I am so clear, it's _____.
7: You look _____,.
8: You have this _____, effect on people.
9: She's only here to salvage her _____, career.
10:I have only seen the beginning. But it is _____.

SUGGESTED ANSWERS (those used in the film): 1: false. 2: awful. 3. wonderful. 4: exciting. 5: exclusive. 6. ridiculous. 7. terrific. 8. powerful. 9. precious. 10. fantastic.

037 USE OF ADJECTIVE 'BAD' AND ITS OBJECTS

Adjectives, we can classify, into three types.
1. Attributive Adjectives:- We have to place these adjectives in front of the objects they describe/modify.
e.g. the phrase: white paper. White is the attribute. Paper is the object.
e.g.2: strong boy.

2. Complementary Adjectives:- Adjectives which complete the meaning of a sentence, when used at the end of sentences, are complementary adjectives. This happens when verbs are of incomplete predication, i.e. they do not complete the meaning of a sentence. The Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary gives a good example for this type of adjective:
"It is a country where corruption is rife ."
We may not be able to use the phrase 'rife corruption'.

3. Adjectives which can be used in both the ways:-
The strong boy came here. (attributive usage).
The boy is strong. (complementary usage).
He has a bald head. (attributive).
His head is bald. (complementary).

I suggest that, for the sake of a sort of uniformity, we should, as far as possible, try to use attributive adjectives.

4. A noun can have any number of adjectives, both attributive and complementary.

Example: See this usage by the poet Rabindranath Tagore in his Gitanjali:

My house is all dark and lonesome--lend me your light!.

Note: 'My' is attributive adjective. It is also a possessive adjective, because it indicates ownership. 'Dark house, lonesome house' become attributive adjectives. The poet used them as complementary adjectives.

Note: The Readers may not find the above classification in some grammar books/ web sites. There are other classifications too.

The word 'bad' is an adjective, which can be used both before its object and elsewhere in the sentence. Here is a small quiz based on the objects* of 'bad'.

*Objects = nouns which the adjective 'bad' describes.

Transitive verbs have their objects. Prepositions have their objects. Adjectives describe and modify nouns. I do not find it senseless to call the nouns described by adjectives, as objects of adjectives.

Please fill in the blanks selecting appropriate words from the Choice Box.

The sentences used in the Sentences Box are proverbs used in the English language. You can make following observations from the proverbs:

1. Two words are contrasted. The objects of the adjective 'bad' are opposite in meaning to the subject or the other keyword in the sentence.

2. You can also see how proverbs evolve out of conflicts between two extremes in human lives.

CHOICE BOX
1. thief. 2. counsellor. 3. good. 4. master. 5. son. 6. calf. 7. supper. 8. lenders. 9. company. 10. wives.

SENTENCE BOX
1: All are good lasses, but whence come the BAD ____ ?
2: Better be alone than in BAD ____.
3: Great spenders are BAD ____.
4: He that spares the BAD injures the ___ .
5: Hope is a good breakfast, but a BAD ____ .
6: Many a good cow has a BAD ____.
7: Many a good father has but a BAD ____ .
8: Money is a good servant but a BAD ____ .
9: Nothing so BAD, as not to be ___ for something.
10: Self is a BAD ____ .
11: The receiver is as BAD as the ___ .

SUGGESTED ANSWERS: 1. wives; 2. company. 3. lenders. 4. supper. 5. calf. 6. son. 7. master. 8. good. 9. counsellor. 10. thief.