Participles as Adjectives

Participals are one of the three major categories of non finite verbs including gerunds and infinitives. Non finite verbs are verb forms that do not get conjugated to reflect person, number, tense or mood. 

Participles are verbs ending either in -ing or -en. These verbs lack Inflectional properties and such cannot indicate subject - verb agreement in sentences. They are divided into two namely; present participles and past participles. 

Present Participles 

Present participles are verb forms ending in '-ing', also known as continuous tense or progressives.

Examples of present participles include;

1. Walking

2. Cooking

3. Teaching

4. Shaking

Past participle 

Past participles are verb forms ending in (-en) or having different structures from their past tense variants like the case of: bad worse worst.

Examples of past participles include: 

1. Broken

2. Seen

3. Taken

4. Worst

Since participles are verbs with no inflectional properties, they are capable of functioning like other elements in clauses or sentences hence they can function as adjectives when they serve the purpose of qualifying subjects. 

For example;

1. She is eating.

'eating', above, may be taken for a verb that describes the action of downing food substances, however, the fact remains that the verb 'eating' in the example above functions as an adjective describing the state of being of the subject 'she'. How is that? First, the verb 'is' is a linking verb and the purpose of linking verbs is to connect subjects to their complements—words or groups of words that describe them, in other words, adjectives. And the inability of the verb 'eating' to be conjugated for tense and number cancels its status as a verb. Infact, it is more of a concept at this point than an action.

So if you ask a question like: What is she doing? and the response is: Eating. You should know that 'eating' at that point is not a verb but an idea or a concept that involves the action 'to eat'.

So 'eating' describes the state of being of the subject 'she' and is connected to it by a linking verb, 'is'.

Other Examples include:

1. He was fighting on the road.

2. They were talking fast.

3. You are thinking too much. 

Now here is how to tell when the participles are functioning as verbs or adjectives:

1. He is breaking the ice.

When what follows the participle is an object element, then it is functioning as a verb that is dependent on the preceding verb for its grammaticality. But when it is followed by adverbials or nothing at all, it is an adjective by function. For example:

1. He is breaking. 'breaking' here is not an action being transferred to anyone so it is a concept or state of being.

The adjectival function of participles is not limited to present participles, past participles can also function as adjectives. For example:

1. It was broken.

'broken' here is more of a concept than an action because it is not being transfered to an object so it is merely a concept in this case.

Other Examples include:

1. He was seen clearly.

2. They were written again.

3. It is damaged.

Note, however, that participles only function as adjectives when they are connected to subjects by linking verbs, the verb 'to be'. But in cases where they are preceded by other verbs, they function more like verbs. For example;

1. It has happened. 

'happened' here indicates that an action has taken place. It can even be used without a primary auxiliary verb preceding it. For example;

1. It happened.

That is how you can tell when a participle functions as an adjective or a verb.

Related posts:

• Contrasting Adjectives with Determiners
• Comparison in Adjectives
• Adjectival groups in SFG