Verbal nature of Participle I

Participle I possesses some morphological characteristics typical of the verb: the grammatical categories of phase and voice. Participle I in the prefect form denotes an action prior to the action rendered by the finite verb. Having examined the car, the police officer let us go. (First the officer examined the car, then let us go). Non-perfect Participle I, as well as the gerund and the infinitive, has a wider range of meanings: it can denote an action following the action of the finite verb, or to express priority (if such verbs as see, hear, look, turn, etc. are used). For example: She left slapping the door. Hearing loud music form the downstairs, he left to see what was going on.

The category of voice is represented by the opposition of active and passive forms. She saw him buying the newspapers. Having been examined by the police officer, the car was let through.

The triple nature of participle I finds its expression in its syntactic functions. The verb-type combinability of participle I is revealed in its combinations with nouns denoting the subject and the object of the action, e.g.: her entering the room, with modifying adverbs and with auxiliary verbs in the analytical forms of the verb; the adjective-type combinability of participle I is manifested in its combinations with modified nouns and modifying adverbs of degree, e.g.: an extremely maddening presence; the adverb-type combinability of the participle is revealed in its combinations with modified verbs, e.g.: to speak stuttering at every word. In its free use, participle I can function as a predicative, e.g.: Her presence is extremely maddening to me; as an attribute, e.g.: The fence surrounding the garden was newly painted; and as an adverbial modifier, e.g.: While waiting he whistled.

Like any other verbid, participle I can form semi-predicative constructions if it is combined with the noun or the pronoun denoting the subject of the action; for example, complex object with participle I, e.g.: I saw her entering the room; complex subject with participle I (the passive transformation of the complex object constructions), e.g.: She was seen entering the room. In addition, participle I can form a detached semi-predicative construction, known as the nominativeabsolute participial construction, where the noun or pronoun is not the subject of the sentence. This construction expresses various adverbial relations, e.g.: The weather being fine (cause), we decided to take a walk; Breakfast being over, he went to his house (time). The prepositional absolute participial construction is introduced into the sentence by the preposition with and performs the function of an adverbial of attended circumstances: I found him sitting in the library with his head bent on the folded arms.

The absolute homonymy of some forms (the gerund and participle I, for example) makes it necessary to apply some additional analysis of them.

The participle testing.

Can you spot the gerund and Participle I in the following sentences:

I began reading the book.(g)

He went in reading his book. (p)

First of all, Participle I expresses an action as characterizing a person or thing (like an adjective) or as modifying another action (like an adverb). The gerund expresses an action in its most general sense, actually naming it, and looks more like a noun. Participle I gives qualitative characteristics to the subject: his speech was thrilling. The gerund identifies the subject by revealing its meaning: One of hobbies is drawing caricatures.

The participle testing includes the adjective \ adverb substitution backed by the question. If we take the sentence He was in a terrifying condition and ask the question What kind of condition was he in? we will see that we can replace the word terrifying by the adjective awful, for example. The participle also enters into easy coordinative relations with adjectives: That was a false but convincing show of affection.

Some linguists think that the difference between the gerund and participle I can be illustrated by 2 different types of convertion. The gerund is subject to the noun convertion; while the participle – to the adjective convertion. Your airing (g ) the room – To take an airing ( noun ). Animals living (p ) in the jungle – Living languages (adjective).

Moreover, the gerund can function as subject and object. Participle I – as attribute and adverbial. Swimming is my pastimes for holidays. (subject) Feeling tired and having nothing more to do, Jude sat down on one of the sofas. (adverbial)

In the attributive function, the semantic differences between participle I and the gerund are unquestionable: the noun modified by participle I denotes the actual doer of the action, and the participle denotes its processual qualification; the meaning of the gerund in the attributive function is non-dynamic; the difference can be demonstrated in the following tests, cf.: a sleeping girl à a girl who is sleeping (participle I); a sleeping pill à a pill taken to induce sleep (the gerund).

However in certain syntactic contexts the difference between the gerund and participle I tends to obliterate. For example, I felt annoyed at his failing to see my point at once. (gerund) I felt annoyed at him failing to see my point at once. (neither the gerund nor the participle). This usage presents a case known as half-gerund. The half-gerund has as its subject word a personal pronoun in the objective case. Such cases are common with:

-nouns accompanied by attributes in postposition: Do you know any other woman buying a dress like that.

-to avoid ambiguity which might occur in oral speech if the gerund is connected with a noun in the possessive case: I cannot imagine his son marrying so young.

- when the gerund is preceded by more than one noun: She objected to children and women smoking.

- when you want to stress the person component of the complex: I hate the idea of you wasting your time.

So the half gerund is somewhere in between the gerund and Participle I.

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