PARTICIPLES AS MODIFIERS

When we consider the participle forms, we find that there are some which are gradable, and others which are not.  Consider the following examples for "ing" participles:-

We can see that the participles in examples (a), (b) and (c) are gradable, whereas those in (d), (e) and (f) are not.  The difference between these two types can be traced to the TRANSITIVITY of the verbs from which they are formed.  The principles of transitivity will be discussed in another place, but for the moment we can say that this refers to whether a verb requires an object or not.  It is also concerned with the nature of the respective participants in the process described, which feature in the clause as subjects, objects and so on. 
In the case of the verbs in (a), (b) and (c), they are verbs which require an object (i.e. they are TRANSITIVE), and we can go further and state that with these verbs the object must be a person.  We can show this relationship in the following way by making the noun headword of the above examples the subject of the verbs from which the participle modifiers have been formed:-

The verbs in examples (d) and (e) differ from this in that they do not inherently require an object (i.e they are INTRANSITIVE).  If we then similarly make the headwords the subjects of the original verbs from which the modifiers have been formed, we then get:-

The last of the above examples, (f), is different in that although the verb "run" from which the participle is formed is also an intransitive verb (i.e. it requires no object), the logical subject is not the headword of the nominal group "shoes", but another participant.  We cannot then say:-

Example (f) thus illustrates a third type of relationship between the participle and headword, in which the headword has a specific function which is that of a tool or INSTRUMENT in the process denoted by the original verb of the participle.  The process itself is actually performed by someone.  We should note, too, that in cases such as (f) the classifier can only serve as an attributive adjective, not predicative.  Otherwise, it can only be used as the completive in a prepositional group.  The participle thus defines the function of the instrument, and in example (f) the instrument was the "shoes".  Here are some similar examples:-

Thus we can see that there are intrinsic properties which are inherent in the semantic nature of the verbs from which the participles have been formed which influence whether these participles may be gradable or not, and whether or not they may occur predicatively.

All these examples, whether gradable or not, have a relationship with the passive voice in the verb, in which the headword in the nominal group may be made the subject of the verb from which the participle has been formed.

There is another relationship which we can discern, however, for the verbs in examples (i), (ii) and (iii), which may help to understand why these are gradable. They are in fact the same type of verbs which we saw in the previous set of examples which illustrated the "ing" forms (i.e. they express mental states). There is a relationship which may be shown as follows:-

We can see from the above example that the use of participles for verbs such as "interest" as adjectives have a relationship which is connected to the transitivity of the verb. As we noted above, such verbs are transitive (require an object), and take an animate object. When a participle formed from the verb is used to modify the EXPERIENCER (in this case the "students") then the participle is the n form; when the STIMULUS is modified (in this case the "lecture") then the participle will be the ing form.

Participles formed from verbs of this type are gradable, both in the ing form and the n form. Considering now the examples (iv), (v) and (vi) above, we see that they differ in that the verbs from which the participle modifiers have been formed show different transitivity features.

In the case of verbs such as "interest", we saw that they have a logical object which is animate - the "experiencer". In the case of verbs like "break" and "murder", this is not the case - their logical objects may best be described as AFFECTED participants. The subjects in the above transitive clauses are thus the animate CAUSAL AGENTS.

We can now see that in the examples (iv), (v) and (vi) quoted above, where the "n" form is used as a non-gradable classifier, the headword which is modified in each case would be the affected participant in a clause which featured the verb with subject and object.

Thus we can say in summary that whether participles are gradable or non-gradable as modifiers depends on the nature of the verb from which they have been formed. In the case of verbs like "interest" or "disappoint", which describe MENTAL processes, then we find that the participles are gradable, and that the "ing" form modifies the stimulus, and the "n" form the experiencer participants in the process. In the case of verbs like "break" or "murder", which describe ACTION processes, then the participles are non-gradable, and the "n" form modifies the affected participant in the process.

The foregoing description of participle modifiers has necessarily dwelt at some length on verb transitivity, since their behaviour cannot properly be described without reference to this. However, this is something of a digression at this point, and we shall leave further discussion of this important area of grammar for later, where we shall deal with it more fully at an appropriate place. For the present, we shall return to our discussion of submodification.

EXERCISES.

(1) Look at the following nominal groups and identify the structural relationship between the headword and the verb from which the participle has been formed. Do the verbs indicate actions or mental processes? Are the participle modifiers gradable or not? Does this correspond to the description given above?

e.g. (a) the sunken cathedral - a cathedral which has sunk; non-gradable participle, the verb "sink" describes an action, "cathedral" is the logical subject of the verb (the "affected" participant), the verb is intransitive;

(b) the murdered man  --  someone murdered the man; non-gradable participle,  the verb "murder" describes an action, "man" is the logical object of the verb (the "affected" participant), the verb is transitive;

(c) a boring film -  a film which bores someone; gradable participle, the verb "bore" describes a mental process, "film" is the logical subject of the verb (the "stimulus"), the verb is transitive;

(d) the bored audience  -  something bored the audience; gradable participle, the verb "bore" describes a mental process, "audience" is the logical object of the verb (the "experiencer"), the verb is transitive.

a stimulating talk, an intoxicated man, a living example, the wounded soldier, intoxicating drink, protesting students, a disgusting story, a frightened child, the winning team, a forged document, the splashing water, blooming daffodils, approaching crisis, the crashed plane, rising damp, the singing nun.

e.g. Nobody in the audience enjoyed the film.  
(bore)  -  The film was boring. The audience was bored.

e.g. The film bored the audience. 
- It was a boring film. The audience was bored.

Verbs which will fit this pattern include:-

bore, excite, interest, frighten, scare, tire, surprise, astonish, amaze, disgust, exhaust, amuse, horrify, shock