[Grammar] The Hobbit - Verb tenses in a phrase.

[chr0710]

Hi, I'm reading the hobbit and learning about verb tenses: I was just wondering if my analysis of this phrases is correctly done?
I put in parentheses to try to point out if it's a verb tense or an adjective.

The door opened(past simple) on to a tube-shaped (shaped = adjective, not past simple) hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with paneled (past simple or adjective?) walls, and floors tiled and carpeted (tiled + carpeted = adjectives?) , provided with polished (adjective) chairs.
“The tunnel wound (past simple) on and on, going (present continuous) fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill.

When you say Has been tiled. Is tiled then and adjective
How do you distinguish between when something as an adjective or a past tense form of a verb?

 

[Matthew Wai]

'Tube-shaped' is an adjective. 'Paneled' is an adjective. 'Going' is a participle modifying 'tunnel'. 'Tiled' is not an adjective in 'has been tiled'.


I agree with you on the rest.

 

[GoesStation]

Paneled, tiled and carpeted are all adjectives in the quoted text.

Remember to capitalize the first word and every important word of a title and to distinguish titles with quotation marks or italics: "The Hobbit" or The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings.

 

[chr0710]

Thank's to Matthew and GoesStation!

There seems to be a disagreement: floors tiled is not an adjective according Matthew because "floors tiled" is like saying "Floors have been tiled" What if it was "tiled floors" would that make it an adjective?

If i say "Floors painted with blue" Then painted is the verb in past tense, and blue is the noun, right?

If i look in a dictionary i cant find "panelled" or "tiled" as an adjective, they look more like the past participle of the verb to panel or to tile?

 

[GoesStation]

'Tiled' is not an adjective in 'has been tiled'.

There seems to be a disagreement: floors tiled is not an adjective according Matthew because "floors tiled" is like saying "Floors have been tiled" What if it was "tiled floors" would that make it an adjective?

See Matthew's quote above. Tiled is an adjective in the Tolkien quote, but not in has been tiled.

 

[PaulMatthews]

Thank's to Matthew and GoesStation!

There seems to be a disagreement: floors tiled is not an adjective according Matthew because "floors tiled" is like saying "Floors have been tiled" What if it was "tiled floors" would that make it an adjective?

If i say "Floors painted with blue" Then painted is the verb in past tense, and blue is the noun, right?

If i look in a dictionary i cant find "panelled" or "tiled" as an adjective, they look more like the past participle of the verb to panel or to tile?

I think you are right. "Tiled" and "carpeted" are adjectives in "tiled and carpeted floors", but verbs (past participles) in "floors tiled and carpeted". Past-participial modifiers are 'bare' passives, as is evident from the admissibility of a by phrase, as in "floors tiled and carpeted by XYZ Ltd".

 

[Matthew Wai]

"floors tiled" is like saying "Floors have been tiled"

I consider 'floors tiled' the short form of 'floors that have been tiled', a noun phrase, instead of 'Floors have been tiled', a sentence.

If i say "Floors painted with blue" Then painted is the verb in past tense, and blue is the noun, right?

I consider 'painted with blue' a participial phrase modifying 'floors'.

 

[PaulMatthews]

I consider 'floors tiled' the short form of 'floors that have been tiled', a noun phrase, instead of 'Floors have been tiled', a sentence.

I consider 'painted with blue' a participial phrase modifying 'floors'.

Yes, "floors tiled and carpeted" is of course a noun phrase, nobody said otherwise. But whether you consider "tiled and carpeted" to be a reduced that clause, or like me a past-participial clause, the fact is that "tiled" and "carpeted" and not adjectives. That is what the OP was getting at.

 

[Matthew Wai]

They can't be main/finite verbs either.

I found that Piscean had liked two contradictory statements below.

Paneled, tiled and carpeted are all adjectives in the quoted text.

the fact is that "tiled" and "carpeted" are not adjectives.

 

[PaulMatthews]

They are non-finite verbs as head of the modifying clause, not the main sentence verbs.

The noun phrase is "floors [tiled and carpeted]" where the noun "floors" is head and the bracketed element is a non-finite clause as modifier.

Past-participial clauses are semantically similar to relative clauses, so "floors tiled and carpeted" is similar in meaning to "floors which were tiled and carpeted.