Participles

Participles.

The Participle. Participles are verbal adjectives, formed from verbal stems. (The name denotes the fact that they participate in the nature of both verbs and adjectives.) Participles have both verbal aspect and voice; as adjectives they have declension – i.e., they show case and number, and they reflect gender.

The three verbal aspects of Latin participles are imperfective, perfective and prospective, which correspond to present, perfect and future tenses. The two verbal modes or voices are active and passive. The Latin participial system, however, lacks a present passive and a perfect active participle. The system hence appears as follows:

The present participle is a third-declension adjective of one termination; the perfect passive, and future participles are regular first-, second-declension adjectives of the -us, -a, -um type.

Formation of Participles.

Present participles: ‘present’ or imperfective stem + -ns, -ntis, etc.:

portāns, gen. portantis

monēns, gen. monentis

pōnēns, gen. pōnentis

capiēns, gen. capientis

pūniēns, gen. pūnientis

Future passive participles: ‘present’ or imperfective stem + -ndus, -a, -um, etc.:

portandus, -a, -um

monendus, -a, -um

pōnendus, -a, -um

capiendus, -a, -um

pūniendus, -a, -um

Perfect passive participles: ‘supine’ stem (= fourth principal part) + -us, -a, -um, etc.:

portātus, -a, -um

monitus, -a, -um

positus, -a, -um

captus, -a, -um

pūnītus, -a, -um

Future active participles: ‘supine’ stem (= fourth principal part) + -ūrus, -a, -um, etc.:

portātūrus, -a, -um

monitūrus, -a, -um

positūrus, -a, -um

captūrus, -a, -um

pūnītūrus, -a, -um

The Predicative Use of Participles. Adjectives used attributively are simply descriptive. They simply posit an attribute of the word they modify: “A red hat lies on the table.” Here ‘red’ has a simple adjectival function. But adjectives, including participles, can modify nouns in such a way that their effect is virtually adverbial. This is so particularly when the force of the adjective is ‘predicative’, i.e., when it does something more than merely describe.

Consider the statement, “They painted the barn red.” The adjective ‘red’ describes the barn, but it says more than that a red barn was painted; in fact, it states the result (an adverbial idea) of the act of painting: they painted the barn, so that it was now red, instead of whatever color it had been before it was painted. In this sentence ‘red’ is known as a predicate object. (Predicate objects often occur after so-called factitive verbs – verbs of making, calling, naming, etc.: “She made him angry”; ”They called him Brutus”, etc.)

It is important to distinguish attributive from predicative uses of the participle. This is the difference between shooting a dead man (attributive) and shooting a man dead (predicative).

Predicative participles may suggest a number of functions that may be rendered by adverbial phrases or clauses in English:

time: dē hīs rēbus certior factus, statim discessit.

“When informed of these circumstances, he departed at once.”

cause: dē vītā dēspērantēs, confūsē diffūgērunt.

“Despairing for their lives, they scattered in confusion.”

concession: graviter vulnerātus, tamen fortiter pugnābat.

“Although seriously wounded, he fought on bravely.”

condition: iussus hoc faciam.

“I will do this if ordered.”

manner: confūsī fūgērunt.

“They fled in confusion.” (lit. ‘bewildered’)

purpose: infantēs servō dedit interficiendōs. (future participles)

“He gave the children to a slave to be killed.”

result: sē pugiōne trānsfīgit, tum in solum cecidit mortua.

“She ran herself through with the dagger, then fell to the ground, dead.”

circumstance: haec agēbantur, dominō nec praesente nec sciente.

“These things were done without their master either being

present or knowing of it.”