Participles in the functions of Attribute, Predicative, and Parenthesis

16.1.1. Attribute expressed by PART can appear in front of the modified N (when it’s a single PI – non-perfect, active, or a single PII):

Britain is an ageing society. Increasing prices are making food very expensive. A bored student complained to his teacher. The bird had a broken wing;

or after it (when PARTs make phrases with dependent words; sometimes a single PII is used after the noun modified by it):

He gestured towards the box lying on the table. I think the idea suggested by Tim is the best one. Most of the people questioned refused to answer. Most of the people singing were students.

16.1.2. SingleParticiples as attributes do not always take the position before Ns: it is not normal to say the climbing man, and it is not possible to say *the discussed problem. A participle before a noun usually expresses some more permanent characteristic: it’s more like an adjective than a verb Similarly, when we refer to a broken window, we are not necessarily thinking of the action; we may just be thinking of the way the window looks. On the other hand, if we talk about a man climbing on a rock, or about the problems discussed at the meeting, or the window broken last night, we are thinking more of the actions (the meaning of the PART is closer to the verbal meaning), and the PART is like a V as well as an ADJ. Compare:

He doesn’t want to spend his life surrounded by dirty washing and screaming children (screaming is presented as permanent characteristic) – The child screaming so loudly as to wake everyone was probably very hungry (screaming presents a single action).

Here aremore expressions in which the PART must go after the noun: the only place left, the people taking part, any person objecting, the success just obtained.

16.1.3. PARTs in postposition can modify pronouns – everyone concerned (everyone who was concerned), those taking part (the people taking part), those selected (the people or things selected).

PII of many verbs may be placed before a noun only if they combine with an adverb to make a compound attribute composed of PII and ADV: we cannot say *a built house or *a mentioned point, but we can say a recently-built house, or the above-mentioned point.

A few PARTs can change their meaning depending on their position and the semantics of the noun:

the people concerned (=the people who were affected by what was happening); a concerned expression (=a worried expression); the people involved means the same as the people concerned, an involved explanation means “a complicated explanation”; the solution adopted (=the solution chosen by the participants), an adopted child (= one who lives with people who are not his biological parents).

16.1.4. When a prior action is meant, no participle I can be used as an attribute – only an attributive clause is used: Look at the people plowing in the field (they are doing it now). Where are the farm workers who were plowing in this field in the morning? (See Note to 15.4.)

16.1.5. A detached attribute expressed by PART is separated by commas (or dashes) in writing and pauses in speech, when it gives some additional characterizing to its noun. It can be used in any part of the sentence:

The candle, wasted at last, went out. He gave me one of his old smiles – knowing and searching.

The detached character of PART is mostly obvious when it modifies a personal pronoun, e.g. Still smiling, he rose to leave the room.

16.2. In the function of predicative PI is used only in the Non-Perf. Act. form. The meaning of PI is qualitative characterization of the person/thing named as the Subj. PII denotes a state:

The present situation is terrifying. He seems/looks depressed. The movie is rather touching. I felt touched by the movie.

Although keeping the verbal form, PARTs are often treated as deverbal Adjectives – The Brazilians are pleased with the football match score. She was scared that they would find her. They remained standing. Greg became interested in what was discussed.

16.2.2. Occasionally we come across PII with active meaning used as predicative: Evening is come. Everybody is gone. The sun is not risen. The meaning of be+PII here is very similar to the grammatical meaning of the perfect forms – the action is completed before some moment of time.

16.3. As an independent element of the sentence, PI and PII perform the function of Parenthesis, whose meaning is a comment to the whole sentence or its part. PI is more frequent in this function: generally (broadly, honestly, strictly, personally, roughly, etc. ) speaking,putting it mildly, allowingfor …, judgingby (from) …, talking of/about …, taking … into consideration, supposing..., taking it all in all, present company excepting, etc.

Social psychology, generally speaking, deals with the behavior of people in groups. We’ll have to leave for the station to be able to see him off in forty-five minutes, allowing for traffic delays, of course.

However, PII can be used as an independent element, too: all told, present company excepted, all things considered, stated bluntly, etc.

Yet, all things considered, both movie and book (‘2010 Odyssey Two’) stand up quite well in the light of these discoveries, and it is fascinating to compare the Jupiter sequences in the film with the actual movies from the Voyager cameras.