Voice peculiarities of participle II

§ 143. Participle II of transitive verbs, when it is not part of a perfect form, is always passive in meaning.

Depending on the verb and the context it may correspond to any passive participle in Russian: built -построенный, строившийся, строящийся; begun - начатый, начинае­мый, начинающийся; translated - переводящийся, переводившийся, переводимый, переведенный.

Having a passive meaning participle II of transitive verbs is opposed to participle I active: asking - asked, loving - loved, seeing - seen, writing -written, teaching - taught, watching - watched, etc.

The passive meaning of participle II may be of three types:

1) denoting an action directed towards the person or non-person expressed by the subject or object. This is peculiar to durative (non-terminative) transitive verbs, such as to accompany, to follow, to watch, to carry, to teach, to listen (to), to laugh (at), to look (at, for, on), to speak (of, to), to love, to hate, as in:

Spanish is one of the foreign languages taught at our Institute.

I won’t have my friend laughed at.

2) denoting a state, which is the result of an action. This is typical of terminative transitive verbs, such as to bring, to catch, to do, to find, to make, to put, to solve, to build, to realise, to open, to close, etc.

The problem is solved. The door is shut.

3) denoting a pure state. This is the case with verbs denoting psychological states and emotions, such as to amuse, to annoy, to offend, to surprise, to please, to excite.

I felt annoyed when he refused to help me.

I’m very (much) pleased with what he has done.

Participle II of intransitive verbs is always active in meaning.

The use of these participles is restricted. Only participles II of verbs denoting motion or change of state can be used as attributes. These are participles II of the verbs to arrive, to fall, to go, to rise, to depart, to decease, to retire, to fade, to wither, to vanish, to decay and some others. Participles II of these verbs correspond to the Russian active participle of the perfective aspect: arrived - прибывший, vanished - исчезнувший, faded - увядший, decayed - сгнивший, as in arrived guests, the risen moon, the vanisned civilisation, the fallen leaves, the retired president.

Among these participles we find some which can be used either transitively or intransitively, such as hidden, increased, diminished, returned. They correspond to the Russian perfective active participles with the suffix -ся (спрятавшийся, увеличившийся, вернувшийся): the man hidden behind the tree, an increased population, a returned traveller.

PRACTICE

Exercise 1. Translate the proverbs from English into Russian. Define the verbal and adjectival features of Participle II. [Simkhovich p.232 Ex.1]

1. Better untaught than ill taught. 2. One volunteer is worth two pressed men, 3. When united we stand, when divided go fall. 4. Stolen pleasures are sweetest. 5. Forewarned is forearmed. 6. A burnt child dreads the fire. 7. A watched pot never boils. 8. A fault confessed is half redressed.9. Forbidden fruit is sweetest. 10. Once bitten, twice shy.

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences from English into Russian. Define the verbal and adjectival features of Participle I and Participle II. [Drozdova p.332 Ex.1]

1. The boy playing in the garden is my sister's son. 2. You can get the recommended book in the library. 3. He asked her to go on with her story, promising not to interrupt her again. 4. Receiving no letters from her father, she called him. 5. He left the office at three o'clock; saying he would be back at five. 6. The figure mentioned in his article were published in the Times. 7. He lay on the sofa reading a newspaper. 8. Seeing her he raised his hat. 9. Having signed the letter the manager asked the secretary to send it off at once. 10. Informed of the arrival of the ship, they sent a car to the port. 11. Having lived in that town all his life, he knew it very well 12. Books read in childhood seem like old friends. 13. Having been well prepared for the interview, he could answer all the questions. 14. Being checked with great care, the report didn't contain any errors. 15. These machines will be sent to the plant being constructed in this region.

THE FUNCTIONS OF PARTICIPLE [Simkhovich p.129]

Functions		Indicators	Patterns
Predicative		After the link verbs: be, get, remain, look, seem, grow, turn, etc.	Participle I: The film was disappointing. Participle II: I was disappointed with the film.
Attribute			Participle I: I was taken in by her charming smile. The woman holding a baby in her arms is waiting to see the doctor. Participle II: Stolen pleasures are sweetest. The man injured in the accident was taken to hospital.
Part of a complex object		a) after the verbs denoting sense perception: see, hear, feel, find, etc.; b) after the verbs denoting wish: desire, want, wish, etc.; c) after have, make, get*.	Participle I: 1 saw him crossing the street. I can't have you doing it. I'll have you swimming in a week. Participle II: I've heard that tune played many times. I want my trousers pressed. He made himself respected.
Adverbial modifier of	time	usually after the conjunction “when” “while”	Participle I: (While) turning up his violin, the soloist broke a string. Having climbed the hill, he sat down to have a rest. Participle II: When asked about the accident, the girl began to cry.
	comparison	after the conjunctions “as if”, “as though”	Participle I: She looked at him as if waiting for an answer. Participle II: He suddenly stopped as if struck by the news.
	attendant circumstances (manner)		Participle I only! He was standing on the bridge admiring the beautiful view.
	reason (cause)		Usually Participle I Being a stranger, he was the most eligible for suspicion.
	condition	after the conjunctions “if’, “when”	Usually Participle II If taken literary, the sentence has no sense.
	concession	after the conjunction “though”	Usually Participle II Though surprised by his arrival, she did not show it.
Parenthesis			Generally speaking…, putting it mildly, judging by (from), allowing/or, taking everything into consideration, as intended, as mentioned above, etc.

Note:

1. Participle I Perfect is not used as an attribute. To express priority an attributive clause is used.

The boy who has broken the window is Tom Winslow.

2. Participle I Indefinite of the verb "to be" is not used as an adverbial modifier of time. Clauses of the type "Когда я был мальчиком" may be translated

"When a boy".

*The contraction composed of these verbs + direct object + Participle II means that the actions expressed by the verbs and Participle II is done not by the doer of the action, but by somebody else for the doer of the action.