CHAPTER 23
"Participles"
Despite its disarmingly simple title, this chapter contains a lot
of material -- some of it simple, some of it potentially perplexing
-- but all of it overwhelming taken together in one heap. I'm
going to break it down into two sections for you. Don't try to do
them both in one sitting, unless you find the first section so easy
that you need more. The sections are (I) Morphology (formation),
and (II) Syntax (use) of the participles.
PART I
BASIC CONCEPTS OF LATIN PARTICIPLES
You already know what a participle is; you've been working with one
now for a couple of chapters. A participle is a verbal adjective.
That is, an adjective derived from a stem of a verb. The
participle you're familiar with is the perfect passive participle
-- the fourth principal part of the verb -- which is used in the
formation of the perfect system passive. So let's look at it
again, this time with a finer eye for detail.
We call the fourth principal part of a verb a participle
because it's a verbal adjective. Now, because it's an adjective it
must agree with whatever noun it's modifying. That's what
adjectives do: modify and agree with nouns. So to agree with its
noun, a participle must be able to decline in some way to get the
different numbers, genders, and cases it may need -- just as any
adjective must. The fourth principle part, therefore, has the
adjectival endings "-us, -a, -um" attached to it, and that tells
you it declines in the first and second declensions -- like
"magnus, -a, -um" -- to get the endings it needs. So every
participle in a sentence will have number, gender and case because
it is an adjective and it must be agreeing with something in the
sentence of which it is a part.
But a participle is a verbal adjective, so it's going to get
some of its character from its verbal ancestry. What qualities do
verbs have? They have (1) number, (2) person, (3) tense, (4) mood,
and (5) voice. So which of these six will participles retain?
- Number
A participle has number, that's true, but it gets its number
-- singular or plural -- from the noun it's modifying. So a
participle will have number, but not because it is a verbal
derivative, but because it's an adjective.
- Person
A participle does not have person -- 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. You
can't say of a participle, this is in the first person.
- Tense
A participle will have tense -- after a fashion. It will be
either present, future, or perfect. The participle you know
is the perfect participle.
- Mood
A participle is already a mood of a verb. There are the
indicative, imperative, subjective, infinitive, and
participial moods of verbs. So to say "participle" is already
to designate a certain mood.
- Voice
A participle has voice -- either active or passive. The
participle you know is a passive participle; hence it is the
perfect passive participle.
So let's summarize all this. Whenever you see a participle in
a sentence, you must be prepared to identify its adjectival and
verbal components:
ADJECTIVAL VERBAL
number voice
gender tense
case
FORMATION OF LATIN PARTICIPLES
Now for a pleasant surprise: the Latin participial system is not
nearly so complicated as the English system. In English,
participles are often compounds of verbal stems and auxiliary
verbs: "having been seen", "having looked", etc. In Latin, a
participle is a one-word show.
You know that the Latin participles have number, gender, and
case, all of which it must have because of its adjectival
character. It gets its number, gender, and case in its adjectival
endings. The participle which you already know -- the perfect
passive participle -- is declined in the first and second
declensions. This is important to remember: all participles will
have number, gender, and case, and they get them by declining.
We'll look at this again.
But what about voice and tense? You know only one participle,
and it is passive in voice and perfect in tense. But there are
other participles with other tenses and voices. In Latin there are
participles of the present, future, and perfect tenses, and of the
active and passive voices. (Only the future tense has participles
of both voices. There is an active, but not passive participle of
the present tense; there is a passive, but not active participle in
the perfect tense.) Here are the formulae for their formation.
- FUTURE ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
The future active participle of any verb is formed by adding
"-ur-" and the adjectival endings "-us, -a, -um" to the stem
of the fourth principal part of the verb. For example, the
future active participle of "laudo" is:
laudat + ur + us, -a, -um = laudaturus, -a, -um
- FUTURE PASSIVE PARTICIPLE (THE GERUNDIVE)
The future passive participle (also called the gerundive [jeh
RUHN div] for reasons you'll see in a minute) of any verb is
formed by adding "nd" and the adjectival endings "-us, -a,
-um" to the lengthened stem of the first principal part of the
verb. Hence for the four conjugations:
1. lauda + nd + us, -a, -um = laudandus, -a, -um
2. mone + nd + us, -a, -um = monendus, -a, -um
3. age + nd + us, -a, -um = agendus, -a, -um
3-i. capie + nd + us, -a, -um = capiendus, -a, -um
4. audie + nd + us, -a, -um = audiendus, -a, -um
- PRESENT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
The present active participle is formed by adding the third
declension adjectival ending "-ns, -ntis" to the lengthened
stem of the first principal part. This adjectival ending is
the same ending you saw in the adjective "potens, potentis".
(We'll consider the declension a little later.) So the
present active participle of the four conjugations look like
this:
1. lauda + ns, -ntis = laudans, laudantis
2. mone + ns, -ntis = monens, monentis
3. age + ns, -ntis = agens, agentis
3-i. capie + ns, -ntis = capiens, capientis
4. audie + ns, -ntis = audiens, audientis
- PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE
The perfect passive participle is given to you as the fourth
principal part of the verb in the dictionary with the
adjectival endings "-us, -a, -um". The only refinement you
should make to your knowledge is that the true fourth
principal part of a verb is what is left after you drop off
the adjectival endings. The true fourth principal part of
"laudo", for example, is "laudat-", not "laudatus, -a, -um".
"Laudatus, -a, -um" is the perfect passive participle;
"laudat-" is the true stem of the fourth principal part.
So let's go back to the empty table of participles and insert these
formulae:
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE 4th p.p. + ur + us, a, um lst p.p. + nd + us, a, um
PRESENT 1st p.p. + ns, -ntis xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PERFECT xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 4th p.p. + us, a, um
SOME PRACTICE WITH PARTICIPLE MORPHOLOGY
Write out the complete participial system of the following verbs:
1. duco, ducere, duxi, ductus -a, -um
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE ____________________ ____________________
PRESENT ____________________ ____________________
PERFECT ____________________ ____________________
2. mitto, mittere, misi, missus -a, -um
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE ____________________ ____________________
PRESENT ____________________ ____________________
PERFECT ____________________ ____________________
3. cupio, cupere, cupivi, cupitus -a, -um
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE ____________________ ____________________
PRESENT ____________________ ____________________
PERFECT ____________________ ____________________
4. amo, amare, amavi, amatus -a, -um
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE ____________________ ____________________
PRESENT ____________________ ____________________
PERFECT ____________________ ____________________
5. lego, legere, legi, lectus -a, -um
ACTIVE PASSIVE
FUTURE ____________________ ____________________
PRESENT ____________________ ____________________
PERFECT ____________________ ____________________
TRANSLATING THE PARTICIPLES: THE BASICS
Now let's think about the meaning of these participles. We'll
first look at their barest, literal translations. They make really
awful sounding English and, I hope, you'll soon discard them, but
by learning these rudimentary translations first, you'll be certain
to understand the grammar the participles involve.
- THE FUTURE ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
Obviously, the future active participle tells you that the
modified noun is about to undertake some action sometime time
in the future ("future active"). But this construction has no
convenient parallel in English. To translate this in English
we used what is called a "periphrasitic" (peh ri FRAS tik)
construction. The root of this term is "periphrase" and
that's precisely what we have to do to translate the future
active participle -- we have to find a periphrase for it, some
way of approximating the meaning it would have had for the
Roman ear. We "talk around it". The standard periphrases for
the future active participle is "about to 'x'" or "going to
'x'", where "x" is the meaning of the verb. For example, for
the participle "laudaturus" we would say "about to (or going
to) praise"; for "facturus" we would say "about to (or going
to) do".
- THE FUTURE PASSIVE PARTICIPLE
This participle, too, has to be brought into English with a
periphrase. Since both future participles make use use
periphrastic constructions, the translation for the future
active participle is often called the "1st periphrastic"; the
future passive participle is called the "2nd periphrastic".
The periphrase of the future passive participle might be
something like this "about to be 'x'ed", or "going to be
'x'ed", where "x" is the meaning of the verb. For example,
"ducendus" might be translated "about to be (or going to be)
led".
But the future passive participle in Latin usually has a
special sense attached to it you can't foresee simply by
examining the grammar of its constitutent parts. The future
passive participle very often implies a sense of obligation or
necessity that the action be performed. We can get a feel for
it in our construction "to be 'x'ed" with a conjugated form of
the verb "to be". Like this:
"This book is to be put on the shelf".
"This point is not to be ignored".
The underlined portions would be represented in Latin with the
future passive participle. The next chapter will straighten
all this out. For now, just remember that the future passive
participle involves a special meaning that has to be treated
separately.
- THE PRESENT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
The key to the translation is "present and active". This
tells you that the noun which the participle is modifying is
currently engaged in an action. That is, the noun is the
agent of an action, and the action is currently underway. The
Latin present active participle can be translated directly
into our English present active participle, which is formed
from the first principal part of the verb plus the participial
suffix "-ing"; egg., "walking", "running", "seeing", etc.
- THE PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE
Once again, with this participle the translation is spelled
out in its title. The perfect passive participle tells you
that the noun which the participle is modifying underwent
("passive") an action that is viewed as having been completed
("perfect"). The surest way to get this over into English is
with the rather clumsy auxilary construction "having been"
plus the third principal part of the English verb; egg.,
"having been seen", "having been taken", "having been helped".
For some good practice identifying and translating the participles,
look the Self-Help Tutorials in Wheelock, excerises 1-3. You
really shouldn't go any futher in this lesson until you feel
comfortable about the morphology and basic translations of the
participles.
VERBS WITH DEFECTIVE FOURTH PRINCIPAL PARTS
You have already seen many verbs whose fourth principal part is a
little odd looking, or which have no fourth principal part listed
in the dictionary at all. Verbs which do not have a perfect
passive participle as its fourth principal part are called
"defective" verbs. But often defective verbs will nevertheless
have a future active participle. Now, this may seem to be an
impossibility, because the future active participle is a derivative
of the fourth principal part of the verb, right? For example, you
get "laudaturus" by using the perfect passive participle "laudat-"
plus "-ur" plus "the adjectival ending "-us, -a, -um". So if a
verb has no fourth principal part, how can you put together a
future active participle? Look again. The fourth principal part
is the perfect passive participle, and there are many verbs which
have no possible passive voice. Verbs which are intransitive
cannot be made passive, so, logically, they'll have no perfect
passive participle. But the future active participle is a possible
form for intransitive verbs. In this case, the dictionary will
list the future active participle as the fourth principal part:
fugio fugere fugi fugiturus
sum esse fui futurus
careo carere carui cariturus
valeo valere valui valiturus
PART II: THE SYNTAX OF THE PARTICIPLES
Latin is fond of its participles; it uses them much more often and
with many more shades of meaning than English. For this reason, it
is critically important that you not rush to grab hold of
one-to-one equivalent translations from Latin to English. First
you must force yourself to understand the "meaning" of the the
Latin construction, and only then look for an English translation
which will faithfully reproduce the "meaning" of the Latin. It's
in cases like this where basic language instruction truly
approaches the relm of the liberal arts. You must understand the
meaning of the Latin before you reproduce it in English.
TENSE OF THE PARTICIPLES
This feature of the Latin participle may be the most difficult for
students to comprehend. You know that participles have three
different "tenses": the present, the future, and the perfect. The
present participle indicates an action that is on-going; the
future, an action that is going to happen; and the perfect an
action that has been completed. But a Latin participle only shows
time relative to the tense of the main verb of the sentence.
Participles only indicate whether an action
- is going on at the same time as the action of the main
verb -- the present participle;
- will occur after the action of the main verb -- the future
participle;
- was already completed before the action of the main verb
-- the perfect participle.
To keep things simple, we refer to these temporal relationships as
- time contemporaneous: the present participle
- time subsequent: the future participles
- time prior: the perfect participle
Therefore, the participle "ductus" does not mean that the action
happened in the absolute past, but that it happened before the
action of the main verb. If the main verb is in the future tense,
then the action of "ductus" might not have happened yet in absolute
time. Similarly, the participle "ducens" does not mean that the
action is going on in the real present, but that the action is
going on at the same time as the main verb. Therefore, if the main
verb is a past tense, the action of "ducens" may have already been
complete by the time the sentence is uttered. And so also for the
future participle. The future participle indicates that, relative
to the time of the main verb, the action in the participle has yet
to take place. "Ducturus", therefore, may represent an action that
by the time of the real present has already been completed, if the
main verb of the sentence was a past tense. This may be too much
to absorb at once, but the tenses of English participles work the
same way. So let's forget the Latin for a moment and look at some
English examples.
- The students, about to go home for break, are excited.
- The students, going home for break, are excited.
- The students, having gone home for break, are excited.
The main verb of each of these sentences is "are" -- that is,
a present tense. The students "are" now excited -- that is, at the
time the speaker utters his thought. Now let's look at the
participial constructions.
- In sentence #1, the students have not yet gone home, when they
are excited. That is, they are excited now, and then they are
going to go home. (There's no doubt it's the prospect of going home
that makes them excited.) The participle is therefore indicating
an action that will take place after the time of the main verb.
- In sentence #2, the students are excited and are going home at
the same time; consequently the present participle is used, because
the action it indicates is contemporaneous with that of the main
verb.
- In sentence #3, the students are now excited -- that's the
absolute time -- but before that they had gone home. Therefore the
perfect participle is used, since it shows time prior to that of
the main verb. They went home and now they are excited.
Now let's shift the whole time frame by using "were" instead
of "are" for the main verb of the sentence. Remember, it is the
tense of the main verb that sets the absolute time of the sentence.
- The students, about to go home for break, were excited.
- The students, going home for break, were excited.
- The students, having gone home for break, were excited.
Read each of these sentences carefully. Even though the main
action now has a different meaning for the speaker and his audience
-- he's talking about an event that was a fact -- the temporal
relationship of the participles to that event does not change.
- The
participial construction in sentence #1 is still talking about
something that is subsequent to the time of the main verb;
- the one
in sentence #2 is still talking about an action contemporaneous
with the time of the main verb;
- and the one in sentence #3 is
talking about an action prior to the time of the main verb.
Now let's see how this looks in Latin. Translate these
sentences into literal English.
1. Puellae, cursurae, matrem vident.
__________________________________________________
2. Puellae, currentes, matrem vident.
__________________________________________________
3. Puellae, vocatae, matrem vident.
__________________________________________________
Now translate these into English -- notice the change of the tense
of the main verb.
1. Puellae, cursurae, matrem viderunt.
__________________________________________________
2. Puellae, currentes, matrem viderunt.
__________________________________________________
3. Puellae, vocatae, matrem viderunt.
__________________________________________________
TRANSLATING LATIN PARTICIPLES AS CLAUSES
In many ways, English is a very precise language, especially
when it comes to spelling out the relationship a subordinate clause
has to the main clause of a sentence. Consider these complex
sentences.
- When the sailors were seen by Polyphemus, they were
frightened.
- Because the sailors were seen by Polyphemus, they were
frightened.
- Since the sailors were seen by Polyphemus, they were
frightened.
- The sailors who were seen by Polyphemus were frightened.
- The sailors, who were seen by Polyphemus, were frightened.
- The sailors, although they were seen by Polyphemus, were
frightened.
Each of these five sentences is doing the same thing
syntactically: each is subordinating one thought to another. The
main clause -- the main thought -- is that the sailors were
frightened. Subordinate to the main thought is the thought that
the sailors were seen by Polyphemus -- the one-eyed monster. So
syntactically, these sentences are constructed the same way.
But look at the different ways this subordination is realized
and look at the different ways the relationship between the two
thoughts is being expressed. In sentence (a), the relationship is
strictly temporal -- they were seen, then they were frightened.
And it's very possible that they were seen and frightened at the
same time for some length of time. Like this:
they were seen ---------------
they were frightened -----------
In sentence (b), by constrast, the relationship is expressly
causal -- being seen made them fear. Hence the subordinating
conjunction "because" is used to tell you explicitly that the
action in the subordinate clause caused the action in main clause.
Now look at (c). Does the subordinating conjunction "since"
express a chronological or causal relationship? The truth is, it
can be indicating both! Let's look at the subordinating
conjunction "since" more closely. In these examples, "since" is
used temporally.
- Since your children were such monsters at the party,
Sticky the Clown is charging double his normal fee.
- Since you called yesterday, I've been busy cleaning the
house.
(1) shows "since" in its causal sense; (2) shows it in the
chronological sense. But often you can't tell in which way you
ought to understand a "since" in a sentence, and often it has to be
taken in both senses at the same time. In sentence (c) above,
clearly, it has to be understood in both senses, because both are
accurate descriptions of what happened. The sailors were seen and
then they were frightened (they weren't fightened until after they
were seen); but just as well, the sailors were frightened because
they were seen. It's maddening, sometimes. Look at these examples
where "since" could expressing a causal, temporal, or both a causal
and temporal subordination.
- Since the town of Hootersville had grown so much, no one
could book a room at the Shadey Rest Hotel.
- Since you came yesterday, our peaceful home has been
reduced to near anarchy.
Now let's have a look at the sentences "d" and "e" from above.
As you can see, the same subordination is present. The main idea
is still that the sailors were terrified, and the fact that they
were seen by Polyphemus is attached to it. In these sentences,
however, this latter idea is put into a relative clause -- "who
were seen by Polyphemus". That is, it is presented simply as
additional information about something in the main clause, as an
adjectival clause.
Do you know the difference in meaning between "d" and "e"?
It's quite subtle but very real. Read the sentences out loud and
ask yourself this: "Is the relative clause picking a group of
sailors from among other sailors"? That is to say, are there
several sailors around, but only those who were seen by Polyphemus
were frightened? Or is no such distinction or restriction implied?
Suppose this is what happened. There's a ship in a narrow bay,
surrounded by land on the north, south, and east. There are two
hundred men on the deck, one hundred looking north, one hundred
looking south. Suddenly Polyphemus appears on a hill to the north.
The sailors looking to the north, obviously, see him, and because
they are seen by him too, they are frightened. But those looking
south do not see him, and they are not frightened. Okay, that's
the situation, and you want to sum it up. Only some of the sailors
were seen by him and only they were frightened. You could say this
"The sailors who were seen by Polyphemus were frightened", and the
meaning of the relative clause is that only those seen by
Polyphemus were frightened, but the others, who were not seen, were
not frightened. We call this a "restrictive" relative clause,
because it "restricts" the main clause to a group defined by the
relative clause. In written English, a restrictive relative clause
is not marked off with commas.
So what about the "non-restrictive" relative clause, which is
marked off with commas? Just undo what the "restrictive" relative
clause does. The non-restrictive relative clause does not limit
the main clause to a group specified by the relative clause. It
simply gives you more information about something in the main
clause. Suppose that all the sailors on the ship saw and were seen
by Polyphemus and they were all frightened. You would say, "The
sailors -- who, by the way, were seen by Polyphemus -- were
frightened". Study this example.
- The books which are on the table are not worth reading.
(I'm talking about only the books on the table to
distinguish them from some other books which may be in the
room.)
- The books, which are on the table, are not worth reading.
(There may be others which aren't worth reading, but here
are some and they're on the table.)
Now what about translating the Latin participle? As I said at
the beginning of this section, English likes to nail down the
precise logical and temporal relationships between subordinate and
main clauses in its sentences. It accomplishes this with a wide
array of subordinating conjugations. Latin, however, isn't so
fussy about stating these relationships precisely. All the
sentences "a" through "e" could be represented by one Latin
sentence:
Nautae, visi ab Polyphemo, territi sunt.
The participial phrase "visi ab Polyphemo" could be translated into
English different ways.
The sailors having been seen by Polyphemus were terrified.
who were seen by Polyphemus
because they were seen by Polyphemus
since they were seen by Polyphemus
after they were seen by Polyphemus
when they were seen by Polyphemus
although they were seen by Polyphemus
This is the moral: a way to bring a Latin participle is into
English is to "promote" it from a single word to a full subordinate
clause, one that mixes well with the context. Try your hand at
some of the examples in Wheelock's Self-Help Tutorials, and use a
variety of subordinating English constructions. Watch the tenses
of the main verb and the "relative tense" of the participles.
THE PARTICIPLE AS A NOUN
There isn't really anything shocking about this. You've seen
adjectives used as nouns before. You simply noted the number and
the gender, and then plugged an appropriate pronoun. The
participle, since it's an adjective, can do the same thing. The
trick is to find a good way to bring the verbal part of the
participle out. A simple solution, for starters, is to "promote"
it to a relative clause which captures the meaning, tense, and
voice of the verbal root of the participle.
opprimens "he/she/it who oppresses" or "the oppressor"
opprimentes "they who oppress" or "the oppressors"
oppressus "he who was oppressed"
oppressi "they who were oppressed" or "the oppressed"
oppressuri "those who are going to oppress"
THE ACTIVE PARTICIPLE TAKING OBJECTS
We mustn't ever forget that the participle is a verbal adjective,
and it always retains its verbal character. The verb "laudo" takes
a direct object to complete its sense when it's being used in the
active voice.
"Romani duces bonos laudaverunt". (The Romans praised the good leaders.)
Similarly, when the participle derived from it is in the active
voice, it also can take a direct object.
"Romani duces bonos laudantes virtutem amaverunt".
(The Romans, who praised good leaders, loved virtue.)
Study the following examples of participles taking objects. A very
common word-order for participles taking direct objects is to put
the direct object between the noun and the participle which agrees
with it. Watch for that arrangment. Wheelock (page 306) has a
number of excellence little exercises on translating participles.
VOCABULARY PUZZLES
Aliquis, aliquid This pronoun means "somebody", something",
"some people", some things". It has two parts:
the "ali-" and the "quis, quid" part. It is
very easy to decline this pronoun because it
follows the pattern set by the interrogative
pronoun "quis, quid". The one difference is
the nominative and accusative plurals, which
are "aliqua" and not the expected "aliquae".
aliquis aliquid
alicuius alicuius
alicui alicui
aliquem aliquid
aliquo aliquo
aliqui aliquae aliqua
aliquorum aliquarum aliquorum
aliquibus aliquibus aliquibus
aliquos aliquas aliqua
aliquibus aliquibus aliquibus
Chapter 23
- The girls, about to run, see their mother.
- The girls, running, see their mother.
- The girls, having been called, see their mother.
- The girls, about to run, saw their mother.
- The girls, running, saw their mother.
- The girls, having been called, saw their mother.
01/08/93