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.

040 FOUR WAYS OF USING A VERB

We can use a verb in four ways. 1: as verb. 2: as noun (also called "verbal noun or gerund" ). 3: as an adjective in present tense, called "present participle". 4: as an adjective in past tense + passive voice, called "past participle".

When a verb with 'ing' is used as a 'noun', it has four applications:

1: using as subject.
2: using as object.
3: using as a preposition's object.

Examples:
Smoking is bad for health. ("Smoking" is used as a noun, and subject.)
Another example, a proverb:
"The moon does not heed the barking of dogs."

The moon- is the subject; does not heed- is the verb. Heed- is a transitive verb. Heed what? Heed the barking- is the answer. It is the object. Hence barking is the object and noun here. It is gerund.

VERBS AS ADJECTIVES.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

The word 'sleeping' describes the condition of the dogs. Hence is is adjective. The act of sleeping is continuing (dogs which sleep or which are sleeping) i.e. present. Hence, sleeping- here is a present participle.

Past Participles- need greater discussion. We shall take them up in a separate post.

WHY DOES ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEED GERUNDS AND PRESENT PARTICIPLES?

Some users may experience difficulties in identifying a right noun, while making sentences. Adding 'ing' to a verb and using it as a noun, might have led to the evolution of gerunds.

Eg: Smoking is injurious. What other alternative noun is available if we do not use 'smoking' as gerund?

Some users may experience hardships in in identifying a right adjective while describing nouns. Adding 'ing' to a verb and using it as an adjective is practically convenient.

Eg: a moving train (the train which is moving/in motion).


Now, here is the quiz part- a list of ten verbs, with the suffix 'ing'. Fill up the blanks in the Question Box, selecting a suitable word. The sentences are proverbs. Click 'show ANS' button to see suggested answers. Please also determine for yourself whether the verb is used as a gerund (verbal noun) or as a prssent participle (verbal adjective) or as simply a verb.

SELECTION BOX:
beginning ,
being ,
borrowing ,
falling ,
fishing ,
going ,
growing ,
killing ,
reading ,
speaking.

QUESTION BOX:
1- An honest tale speeds best, ___ plainly told.
2- It is good ___ in troubled waters.
3- Nothing must be done hastily but ___ of fleas.
4- He who likes ___ dislikes paying.
5- The camel ___ to seek horns, lost his ears.
6- Be not afraid of ___ slowly, be afraid only of standing still(Chinese Proverb).
7- A bad ____ makes a bad ending.
8- The ____ out of lovers is the renewing of love.
9- He that has a great nose thinks everybody is ___ of it.
10- Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without ___ it(Spanish Proverb).

SUGGESTED ANSWERS: 1- being (present participle, describes the honest tale),2- fishing (gerund) ,3- killing (gerund) ,4- borrowing (gerund) ,5- going (describes the camel, hence present participle).,6- growing (Preposition's object i.e. noun/gerund) ,7- beginning (gerund) ,8- falling (gerund) ,9- speaking (verb) ,10- reading (preposition's object i.e. noun).