PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES --
TWO RULES BASED ON LOGICAL PATTERNS!!

PRACTICE: (Ebert) * (fall texts) * (spring texts) * (summer texts)

I. THREE FORMS CAN COME AFTER BE: (besides nouns and prepositional phrases)

BE + adjective
Ving (progressive)
Vdtn (passive) 		He was dull.
boring (his friends). (-- HE bored THEM.)
bored (by his friends). (-- THEY bored HIM.)

THE SAME THREE FORMS CAN MODIFY A NOUN:

He was a dull
boring     person
bored
THEREFORE:
RULE # 1:
Adjectives formed from most verbs show an "active" or a "passive" relationship with the noun they modify by adding -ing or -ed.

-ing ("active")
( It/they V someone/thing)

PA <----- Agent
frightening animals (lions?)
a paying customer 		-ed ("passive")
(Someone/thing V it/them

PA ------> Object
frightened animals (mice?)
a paid employee

One really nice thing about participial adjectives:

THEY WORK LIKE ADJECTIVES, BUT THEY CAN ALSO INCLUDE A LOT OF THINGS THAT GO WITH VERBS (in addition to active/passive and perfect/progressive distinctions):
1. agent: A German-made car. (The Germans built it.)
2. object:

a man-eating tiger.
a self-fulfilling prophesy. 		(He eats men.)
(It fulfills itself.)
3. negation: uninterrupted sleep (No one interrupts it.)
4. adverbs:



never-ending battles
home-made bread
long-lasting friendships
a mal-functioning engine. 		(They never end.)
(Someone made it at home.)
(They last long.)
(It is functioning badly) ("mal")
5. particles:

the up-coming election
a built-in cabinet 		(It's coming up.)
(Someone built it in.)
6. prepositions: a longed-for peace (People long for it.)

HOWEVER:
II. THE PAST PARTICIPLE CAN ALSO FOLLOW HAVE (in addition to BE) to express a different meaning:

BE
But also HAVE 		+ Vdtn (passive)
+ Vdtn (perfect, active) 		He was bored (by his friends yesterday)
He has bored (all of his friends for years)

For transitive verbs, an adjective formed by adding -ed indicates a "passive" relationship with the noun it modifies (as when a past participle follows be -- RULE # 1), not a "perfect" idea.

BUT:
RULE # 2:
Adjectives formed from some verbs for which a passive meaning is impossible (intransitive verbs -- you cannot "escape" someone) or insignificant ("change of state" verbs -- if snow melts or something melts the snow, the result is the same) can end in -ed OR -ing . For these verbs, the "-ed" participial adjective carries the meaning of "completedness" -- meaning that a change is "complete", rather than "passive." (Adjectives formed from these same change-of-state verbs by adding -ing show an "active" meaning, but with the added idea of "progressive -- or "incomplete".)

-ing (in progress)
He (it) is __ing

PA <---- A
an escaping prisoner
a growing boy
melting snow		 -ed (completed)
He (it) has ___ed

PA <----- A
an escaped prisoner
a grown boy
melted snow

BUT REMEMBER:
With MOST verbs, -ing and -ed adjectives do not show "completedness." They show whether the noun is the agent or receiver of action expressed by the participle, which means they show two completely different situations. A frightening animal is very different from a frightened animal. Neither is more complete than the other! They are just different.

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Ann Salzmann
Intensive English Institute
University of Illinois