2. Structures with the participles

Participle I and Participle II can be used:

a) singly: • She went away crying.

• The tree was cut down.

b) in a phrase: • Do you know the man standing

at the entrance?

• Shaken by the news, she stood motionless.

c) in a construction: • I saw them stealing apples in my

garden.

• She found the lock broken.

The participles can form four predicative constructions:

1. Objective Participial Construction;

2. Subjective Participial Construction;

3. Absolute Participial Construction;

4. Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction.

Verbals

2.1. Objective participial construction (opc)

As with other non-finite constructions the participle in the OPC is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or an object pronoun which denotes a person or a thing performing the action denoted by the participle:

• I heard them talking loudly.

The OPC with participle I is used after the following groups of verbs:

a) verbs of perception: feel, hear, notice, observe, overhear, perceive, see, smell, spot, spy, watch:

' They noticed a ship approaching the island.

• Suddenly he spied a shark coming towards them (formal).

• I overheard them quarrelling.

The participial construction is used instead of the infinitive construction to refer to part of an event, to emphasize the idea of process.

b) verbs of discovery: catch, discover, find:

• She caught them eating jam.

The infinitive construction after find means something found out by investigation:

• They found him to be innocent.

The participial construction denotes something discovered by chance:

• They found a man lying in the ditch.

Note that it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between the participial construction and an attributive phrase with the participle as an attribute.

c) causative verbs get, have:

• I will get I have the house looking nice.

• He had me swimming in a week.

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Минченков А. Г.

Verbals

The OPC with participle II is used after: a) perceptual verbs: see, hear, feel: • She heard her name mentioned.

b) volitional verbs and expressions: would like, need, want:

• I want this watch repaired quickly. • You need your eyesight tested.

c) causative verbs: get, have:

• She had her car serviced.

d) the verb consider:

• I consider the case closed.

NB! The function of the OPC in a sentence is always complex object.

2.2. Subjective participial construction (spc)

In this construction the participle is in predicate relation to the subject of the sentence expressed by a noun or a pronoun:

• She was seen running away.

The function of the construction is Complex Subject.

Participle I in this construction is mostly used with perceptual verbs and verbs of discovery, while participle II is used with verbs of discovery:

• He was found talking to himself in a whisper.

• The girl was discovered murdered.