A question about present participles and past participles

Status
Not open for further replies.

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
My question is specifically about adjectival present/past participles. I wonder whether all VERBS can be used to make adjectival present/ past participles. Say for examples...

1) A working man/ an eating dog/ a drinking cow/ a sitting cat/ a questioning student/ a scolding mum/ a playing kid/ a loading computer/ an operating machine/ a shouting man/ etc.

2) an upgraded computer/ an eaten cake/ blown hair/ a buried treasure/ a mocked person/ a teased friend/ a slapped woman/ etc.

I just want to do whether it is grammatical to "create" adjectival present/ past participles freely (as they come to our mind) to use in English.
 

bhaisahab

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Ireland
My question is specifically about adjectival present/past participles. I wonder whether all VERBS can be used to make adjectival present/ past participles. Say for examples...

1) A working man/ an eating dog/ a drinking cow/ a sitting cat/ a questioning student/ a scolding mum/ a playing kid/ a loading computer/ an operating machine/ a shouting man/ etc.

2) an upgraded computer/ an eaten cake/ blown hair/ a buried treasure/ a mocked person/ a teased friend/ a slapped woman/ etc.

I just want to do whether it is grammatical to "create" adjectival present/ past participles freely (as they come to our mind) to use in English.

No, it's not possible to do that in all cases.
 

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
then when can I know whether I can do that? Under what conditions, etc.?
 

philo2009

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
There is, unfortunately, no simple formula to predict whether any given participle can serve as what Quirk et al. term 'central adjectives' (i.e. essentially, those that can be modified by 'very'), only vague tendencies dictated largely by convention, making this one of the most difficult areas of English grammar for the learner. Even the compendious CGEL has relatively little to say on the topic. Your best bet is to check each individual case with a native or good learner's dictionary.
 

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
ooh okay!
thanks.
 

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
So talking about the dictionary, the way that I can determine whether a verb+ing/ed can be an adjectival participle is SIMPLY to see whether the dictionary has marked the ing/ed form of a verb as an adjective right?

Just like: "frighten" is a verb, but the dictionary also introduces its brother "frightening" (the adjective) at the bottom. But you won't see "eating" as an adjective is introduced when you check the verb "eat" in a dictionary. So, does it mean that if I cannot find the ing/ed form of a verb introduced as an adjective in the dictionary, this "imagined" adjectival participle does not exist at all?
 

TheParser

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
So, does it mean that if I cannot find the ing/ed form of a verb introduced as an adjective in the dictionary, this "imagined" adjectival participle does not exist at all?

NOT A TEACHER


Kachibi,


I suggest this:

(a) Go to Google.

(b) Type in the word that interests you.

(c) Click on the "books" section.

If that word is being used as an adjective, you will find it mentioned in the many books that

Google has digitized for our benefit. You will see that word used in a variety of sentences and in

all kinds of books (fiction, history, etc.)
 

shannico

Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2011
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Italian
Home Country
Italy
Current Location
Italy
Great advice - as usual I might add...
Shan
NOT A TEACHER


Kachibi,


I suggest this:

(a) Go to Google.

(b) Type in the word that interests you.

(c) Click on the "books" section.

If that word is being used as an adjective, you will find it mentioned in the many books that

Google has digitized for our benefit. You will see that word used in a variety of sentences and in

all kinds of books (fiction, history, etc.)
 

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
But I want to be sure of 1 thing first: all available/usable adjectival participles, be they present or past, all appear in the common dictionary already?
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
You can never be sure of this. The way we use words changes all the time. "Helicopter" used to be a noun. Now you can say that supplies were helicoptered into the area that suffered and earthquake. Similarly, verbs that didn't used to work as adjectives may do so in the future, or a writer may use a word that way for a specific effect in a specific situation.

However, to take a conservative path, I think your idea makes sense. If you don't see it listed in the dictionary as an adjective, don't use it. Just don't be surprised if you see a native speaker using it in a way that you wouldn't have expected.
 

kachibi

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
thanks a lot~~
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top