5. Participles, gerunds,infinitive

As a general principle, participles and gerunds are a feature of written (espe­cially journalistic) Ukrainian rather than of the spoken language, and most need only be recognized; others are more frequently encountered, however, and require attention. Ukrainian participles are adjectival in form

Active participles (present and past)

Of the four participles historically present in Ukrainian, the present active (PrAP.) and past active (PAP.) now exist as purely adjectival forms; this is true also of the present passive participle, but their number is now extremely small. The past passive (PPP.) is the the most widely occurring form; whereas the formation of the PrAP. and PAP. is no longer productive (i.e. since they are readily identified as adjectives and not every verb will have a PrAP. or PAP.), a given verb will readily form the PPP.

The PrAP. and PAP. essentially express 'who or which is/was X-ing', or 'X-ed', in which X is the base verb; as the PrAP. refers to the present tense, it can only be formed from an imperfective verb, while the PAP. can be either imperfective or perfective depending on the nature of the action.

PRESENT The marker of the old PrAP. is the suffix -уч-(-юч-) or -ач-(-яч-), formed on the basis of the 3pl. non-past form, Conjugations I and II, respectively:

читають - читаючий . . . reading

працюють - працюючий . . . working

ревуть - ревучий . . . roaring

сидять - сидячий (who is) sitting

*терплять - терплячий . . . enduring

лежать - лежачий . . . lying

*Note the place of stress: the expected терплячий has now been reanalysed as an adjective meaning 'patient'.

PAST The marker of the old PAP. is -л-, the same element present in the (non-masculine) forms of the past tense:

позеленіл - позеленілий (which had become) green

змерзл- - змерзлий (which had become) frozen, chilled

застаріл- - застарілий grown old, obsolete

Compare also the rare formation перемігший from перемогти 'to over­power', reflecting the old East Slavonic PAP. The definitions given above indicate to what extent the PAP. is now clearly adjectival; as neither it nor the PrAP. will be used as true participial forms, preference is given to the relative constructions using який, хто, and the invariable що. Note particularly that participial forms with the suffixes -ущий, -ащий (PrAP), -вший (PAP.) may be encountered now and again, but these forms have appeared under the influence of Russian and are unlikely to remain in the spoken language, although they may endure in the written media.

Passive participles

The only commonly used participial form - both in written and in spoken Ukrainian - is the past passive (expressing something/someone 'which was X-ed'); past passives can be formed from both imperfective and perfective (transitive) verbs, although perfective formations are more commonly found. There are two markers of the PPP., depending on which stem-type a given verb belongs to: -н- for the majority of verbs, -т- for those verbs belonging to a number of small sets of stems; where needed (i.e. where the structure of the stem requires it), the suffix -н- is expanded to -єн-, -єн-.

-н-: all infinitives in -ати

Note the place of stress in each instance, as it will generally retract by one syllable (including some but not all prefixes):

бажати - бажаний which/who was/has been desired

прочитати - прочитаний ...read

написати - написаний . . . written

продати - проданий ...sold

кохати - коханий ... loved

виграти - виграний . . . won

обдумати - обдуманий .. . considered

забрати - забраний ...taken away

рвати - рваний ...torn

дати - даний . . . given

прозвати - прозваний . . . called, named

Note the expected formation of -ува- verbs when stress is on the stem: Infinitives in -увати, -ювати > -уваний, -юваний

переслідувати - переслідуваний who/which was persecuted

повторювати - повторюваний . . . repeated

очікувати - очікуваний . . . awaited

випрацювати - випрацюваний . . . worked out, elaborated

обстрілювати – обстрілюваний . . . bombarded

But compare those verbs in which stress falls on the suffix in the infinitive: Infinitives in -увати, -ювати -бваний, -ьoваний

нормалізувати - нормалізований which/who was normalized

механізувати - механізований . . . mechanized

стилізувати - стилізований . . . stylized

ізолювати - ізольований . .. isolated

арештувати - арештований .. . arrested

-єн-, -єи-: consonant stems, infinitives in -ити (rarely -їти, -їти)

нести - несений which/who was carried

привезти – привезений . . . brought (by vehicle)

привести - приведений . . . led (on foot)

пекти - печений . . . baked

підстригти - підстрижений . . . given a little haircut

повідомити - повідомлений . .. notified

напоїти - напоєний .. . well-watered (of animals)

доносити - доношений .. . worn out

попросити - попрошений . . . requested

утомити – утомлений . . . tired out

жарити - жарений . . . heated

знизити - знижений . . . lowered, abased

сікти - січений . . . cut

очистити - очищений . . . cleansed

дослідити - досліджений . . . investigated

скінчити - скінчений . . . finished

Note that stress retracts in many of these verbs as well; when there is a consonant mutation in the non-past, that mutated consonant will appear in the PPR, even if the mutation takes place in the 1sg. only (for example, доносити, утомити, and so on).

-т-: monosyllabic stems containing -и- (-і-), -а- (-я-), -у-, -ер- (and prefixed derivatives thereof)

There are no consonant mutations or stress shifts in this group as a whole, as the PPP. can be formed entirely on the basis of the infinitive:

мити - митий who/which is washed

бити - битий .. . beaten

лити - литий .. . poured

ви-пити - випитий .. . drunk up

жати - жатий .. . reaped, harvested

гріти - грітий .. . warmed

дерти - дертий ...torn

за-бути забутий .. . forgotten

на-дути - надутий .. . puffed up

від-крити - відкритий .. . opened

по-чати - початий .. . begun

уз-яти - узятий .. . taken

зай-няти - зайнятий .. . occupied

на-діти - надітий .. . put on

за-перти - запертий .. . closed, locked

про-жити - прожитий .. . lived through

VARIATION As is the case in other verbal formations, there can be variation in the PPP; in other words, more than one acceptable form can occur, especially among verbs with a root vowel -o- or the suffix -ну-:

колоти - колотий - колений . . . stung, pricked

молоти - молотий-мелений* ... ground, milled

пороти - поротий - порений . . . unstitched, ripped up

одягнути - одягнутий - одягнений . . . dressed, clothed

замкнути - замкнутий - замкнений . . . closed, shut up

згорнути - згорнутий - згорнений . . . gathered, raked together

*Note PPP. мел- vs. молоти, молотий.

Present gerund (verbal adverb)

The gerunds are also termed 'verbal adverbs' because they describe or modify action rather than things/people. They are invariant, and refer to an action, subordinate to the main action, which takes place either before or at the same time as the main action. The 'present' gerund refers to the latter, and therefore can only be formed from an imperfective verb (it is therefore also termed the 'imperfective gerund'). It is formed as follows:

1. 3pl. non-past of an imperfective verb, minus -ть + чи:

читаю-(ть) + чи - читаючи while reading

2. If stress is on the ending in the 3pl. non-past then -чи is stressed:

живу-(ть) + чи - живучи while living

Note the place of stress: verbs stressed on the ending in the non-past will have end-stress in the gerund.

(3) In -ся verbs this particle is reduced to -сь:

умию-(ть) + чи + -сь - умиючись while washing oneself

Further examples:

уставати - устаючи while standing up

працювати - працюючи .. . working

пити - п'ючи . . . drinking

нести - несучи . . . carrying

плисти - пливучи . . . swimming

іти - ідучи . . . going (on foot)

брати - беручи . . . taking

писати - пишучи ... writing

просити - просячи ... requesting

носити - носячи ... carrying

любити - люблячи ... loving

говорити - говорячи ...speaking

служити - служачи . . . serving

IRREGULAR FORMS

стояти, стоять but stress: стоячи

лежати, лежать but лежачи

сидіти, сидять but сидячи

And note especially the verb хотіти, хочуть; here the gerund хотячи is not based on the expected 3pl.

Past gerund (verbal adverb)

The past gerund expresses 'having done X', therefore it is formed more com­monly from perfective verbs than from imperfective ones, although the latter formations do exist. Their formation is even more straightforward than that of the present gerund:

Masculine past tense + -ши (сь)

Examples

Masculine past Past gerund Meaning

написав написавши having written

налив наливши . . . poured

умився умившись . . . washed oneself

випив випивши . . . drunk (up)

приніс принісши . . . brought

поплив попливши . . . swum for a bit

провів провівши . . . spent (time)

прийшов прийшовши .. . arrived

зблід зблідши . . . turned pale (-ну- verb)

читав читавши while reading (in the past)

був бувши being (in the past)

ішов ішовши going (in the past)