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THE SECOND PARTICIPLE
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The second participle, that is, forms like invited, liked, written, taken, etc., presents many peculiar difficulties for analysis. In analysing the category of correlation and that of voice in the participle and in stating that the participle has no category of tense, we have so far not mentioned these forms at all.
The Second Participle 188
Now we must give them some special consideration.
First of all we must emphasise that we will analyse the meaning and the use of the second participle when it does not make part of an analytical verb form, whether it be the perfect (have invited, have taken), or the passive voice (was invited, was taken). When the second participle makes part of an analytical form, it loses some of its own characteristics, and indeed we may doubt whether it should still bear the name of participle in those cases.
Again, in analysing the meaning and the functions of the second participle, we must exclude the cases where it has been adjectivised, that is, changed into an adjective, and is no longer a participle, for example, in such phrases as written work, which is used as the opposite of oral work, or devoted friend, where devoted does not designate an action, or, indeed, the result of an action, but a property.
The use of the second participle outside the analytical formations is comparatively limited. We find it either as a predicative in such cases as The door is shut, when it does not denote an action (compare, The door is shut at nine p. m. every day) but a state of things, or as an objective predicative, e. g. He found the door shut, or as an attribute following a noun, more often with some words accompanying it, as in This is the new machine invented by our engineers, and less often an attribute preceding the noun, as in "The Bartered Bride" (the title of Smetana's opera). We can note that the use of second participles as prepositive attributes is on the whole limited in English. For example, the title of the opera just mentioned could not be rendered in English with the help of the participle sold, as this participle cannot be used in that way.
Analysis of the grammatical categories expressed in the second participle is a matter of great difficulty, and so is the problem of finding its place among the other participles.
Let us first consider the problems of aspect, tense, and correlation with reference to this participle. Let us take our examples with intransitive verbs, so that the problem of voice may be left aside for the moment.
It was pointed out long ago that many intransitive verbs have no second participle that could be used outside the analytical forms of the perfect. For instance, such forms as been, laughed, run, sat, lain, wept, etc. can only appear within a perfect form and do not exist as separate participles. A few second participles of intransitive verbs can, however, be used as attributes, e. g. retired in expressions like a retired colonel, or a retired teacher. We may also compare the word runaway (spelt as one word, from the phrase run away), for example, in the expression a runaway horse.
On the whole, then, with intransitive verbs the second participle does not constitute an integral part of the verbal system at all,
134 The Verb: Verbals
and it may be left out of consideration when we analyse that system.
Things are different with transitive verbs. Here, though the use of the second participle as an attribute is limited, there can be no doubt that it exists as a separate form of the verb and not merely as a component of the analytical perfect or passive.
It is also clear that as far as the category of voice goes the past participle of transitive verbs belongs to the passive. We need not illustrate this by examples, since this is common knowledge. It is only necessary to mention the few special cases in which the second participle has no passive meaning in the usual sense, e. g. a well-read man 'one who has read much', not 'one who has been read', or he was drunk, and a few more. These are separate phenomena restricted to a few verbs.
As to aspect, tense, and correlation, the problem appears to be this: Which of these categories find expression in the form of the second participle itself, i. e. do not depend either on the lexical meaning of the verb or on the context? This proviso is necessary, because differences in meaning can be found which do depend on lexical peculiarities of the verb and on the context. We can, for instance, compare such phrases as the following: (1) a young man liked by everybody, (2) a young man killed in the war. It is clear at once that the action denoted by the participle liked is going on, whereas that denoted by the participle killed is finished. This certainly should not be interpreted as two different meanings of the participle as a grammatical form, since it depends on the lexical meaning of the verb (the verb like denotes an emotional attitude, which can last indefinitely, while the verb kill denotes an action which reaches its end and does not last after that). We must then say that the meaning of the form as such is not affected by these differences.
The conclusion about the grammatical categories in the second participle (of transitive verbs) is, then, this. The only category which is expressed in it is that of voice (namely, the passive voice); the other categories, namely, aspect, tense, and correlation (and, of course, mood, person, and number) find no expression in it. Owing to these peculiarities, the second participle occupies a unique position in the verbal system, and it is impossible to find for it a place in a table where special columns or lines are allotted to aspect, tense, and correlation.
As far as voice is concerned, the second participle of transitive verbs (e. g. invited) joins the other passive participles (e. g. being invited and having been invited) as against the active participles inviting and having invited. However, from the formal point of view we run into difficulties here. In all other passive forms, whether finite or non-finite, the category of the passive voice is ex-
The ing-Forms < 185
pressed by the group "be + second participle", whereas the second participle itself, of course, goes without the verb be. We have to choose between accepting this state of things and excluding the second participle from the passive system (that is, if we insist that every passive form must contain the verb be). As this latter alternative appears to be still more undesirable, we shall have to recognise this peculiar position of the second participle among the forms of the passive voice.
THE ing-FORMS
So far we have spoken of the ing -forms as of two different sets of homonymous forms: the gerund (with its distinctions of correlation and voice) and the participle (with its distinctions of correlation and voice). As there is no external difference between the two sets (they are complete homonyms), the question may arise whether there is reason enough to say that there are two different sets of forms, that is, whether it could not be argued that there is only one set of forms (we might then call them ing -forms), which in different contexts acquire different shades of meaning and perform different syntactical functions. Such a view (though without detailed argumentation) was indeed put forward by the Dutch scholar E. Kruisinga.1 In some passages of his book he merely speaks of "the ing", though in other parts he uses the terms "gerund" and "participle".
It must be said that this is one of the questions which do not admit of a definite solution. The solution largely depends on what view we take of the unity of a grammatical form and on the extent to which we are prepared to allow for shades of meaning in one form (or one set of forms). If we are prepared to admit any amount of variety in this sphere rather than admit the existence of grammatical homonyms, we shall have to develop a detailed theory of the mutual relations between the various shades of meaning that the form (or set of forms) can have. If, on the other hand, we are prepared to admit homonymy rather than let the unity of the form (or set of forms) disintegrate, as it were, in a variety of "shades", we shall be justified in keeping to the traditional view which distinguishes between gerund and participle as between two different, though homonymous, sets of grammatical forms.
The difference between the gerund and the participle is basically this. The gerund, along with its verbal qualities, has substantival qualities as well; the participle, along with its verbal qualities, has adjectival qualities. This of course brings about a corresponding difference in their syntactical functions: the gerund
1 See E. Kruisinga, A Handbook of Present-Day English, vol. II, p. 55 II,
136 The Verb: Verbals
may be the subject or the object in a sentence, and only rarely an attribute, whereas the participle is an attribute first and foremost.
We should also bear in mind that in certain syntactical contexts the difference tends to be obliterated. For instance, if in the sentence Do you mind my smoking? (where smoking is a gerund) we substitute me for my, in the resulting sentence Do you mind me smoking? the form smoking may, at least, be said to be the participle. Again, in the sentence Do you mind her smoking? where her may be the possessive pronoun, corresponding to my, or the objective case of the personal pronoun, corresponding to me, the gerund and the participle are practically indistinguishable. We may say, in terms of modern linguistics, that the opposition between them is neutralised.1
If, on the other hand, we prefer to abandon the distinction and to speak of the ing -form, we shall have to formulate its meaning and its functions in such a way as to allow for all the cases of the ing -forms to be included. For instance, instead of distinguishing between substantival and adjectival qualities, we shall speak, in a more general way, of nominal qualities, so as to embrace both the substantival and the adjectival ones, and so forth. Such a view seems also quite possible, and the decision to be taken will, as we have seen above, depend on the general attitude one adopts in matters of this kind.
1 The notion of neutralisation was first introduced by N. Trubetzkoy in his book on essentials of phonology (Grundzuge der Phonologie, Prague, 1939; the book also appeared in a Russian translation in 1960).
The essential idea at the bottom of neutralisation in phonology may be briefly stated as follows. An opposition existing between two phonemes may under certain circumstances (which are to be strictly defined in each case) disappear, that is, it may lose its validity and become irrelevant. Such cases probably occur in every language. It will perhaps be best to give an example of neutralisation in Russian phonology. The sounds [t] and [d] are certainly different phonemes in Russian, as the difference between them may be the only means of distinguishing between two words. Compare, e.g., том 'volume' and дом 'house', or там 'there' and дам 'I shall give'. However, the difference between the two phonemes disappears at the end of a word (and also in some 'other cases). Thus, for example, the words рот 'mouth' and род 'genus' sound alike, a voiced [d] being impossible at the end of a word in Russian. Trubetzkoy says, accordingly, that the opposition between [t] and [d] is neutralised in those conditions. To put it more exactly, whereas in the word том the relevant features of the initial phoneme are three, namely, it is (a) a forelingual consonant, (b) a stop, and (c) voiceless, and the initial consonant of дом also has three relevant features, namely, it is (a) a forelingual consonant, (b) a stop, (c) voiced, the final consonant in рот or род has only two relevant features: it is (a) a forelingual consonant, and (b) a stop. No third relevant feature is found here. The consonant is of course phonetically voiceless, but the voicelessness is phonologically irrelevant, as the corresponding voiced consonant cannot appear in this position.
The notion of neutralisation has since been applied to grammar as well.
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