PARTICIPLES AND PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES
Participial adjectives commonly used as Verbal Groups
A large number of participial adjectives derived from transitive verbs can be used as modifiers in a NG and as Complements in a clause, while also retaining their ability to function as part of a VG: A confusing remark (m); That is confusing (Cs); You are confusing me (part of VG). Forms which can carry out these functions include the following:
-ing: annoying, exciting, frightening, surprising, boring, distressing, satisfying, tiring, misleading
-en: annoyed, excited, frightened, surprised, bored, distressed, satisfied, tired, misled
Remember that -en symbolize both -ed and -en participle forms.
In both their attributive and predicative functions, these participial adjectives can be graded and intensified:
Attributive Predicative
-ing: very encouraging news the news is most encouraging
-en: rather frightened tourists the tourists seemed quite frightened
Participial adjectives seldom used in VGs
A small set of –ing forms are rarely or never used as part of a Verbal Group, but only as attributive or predicative adjectives:
-ing: interesting, amazing, charming, disappointing, pleasing
Pseudo-participial adjectives
An increasing number of adjectives are coined by adding -ing or -ed not to verbs but to nouns. These are termed pseudo-participial adjectives, such as:
-ing: enterprising, neighboring, appetizing, promising-
-en: talented, skilled, gifted, bearded, detailed, jet-lagged
Participial modifiers
To distinguish the -ing adjectives from participial modifiers such as rising prices, the following criterion is useful: if the -ing form cannot be graded, or intensified by very, as in 1, it will be considered a participial modifier. If it can be graded, or intensified by very, it is an adjective. Compare a sleeping child with a horrifying story:
1 (participial modifier) *a more/*very sleeping child * the child is more/ very sleeping
2 (adjective) a more/very horrifying story the story is more/very horrifying
Compound forms
Many participial forms are compounded with a noun, an adjective or an adverbial prefix:
-ing: heart-breaking news; good-looking girl; fast-selling magazines
-en: semi-skimmed milk; sun-tanned legs; well-known brands
Compound forms are extremely common in English, where new ones are freely coined every day. A variety of the possible forms that adjectives and modifiers take is illustrated in the following blurb from The Review:
In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great. Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. This taut, richly-layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment – and a moving story of how we got here.
