Summary

Participles are nonfinite verbal forms that can function as adjectives or as reduced clauses in secondary predications. In most traditional descriptions, they are considered to “participate” in both the verbal and the adjectival categories. Romance participles are inherited from Latin. Broadly, Romance languages have present participles that are active, past participles that are passive, and gerunds. Participles are mixed categories: They have verbal, adjectival, and nominal features. In verbal contexts, participles retain more verbal properties and can project direct objects or be modified by adverbials (such as in les mots désignant souvent des objets ‘the words often designating objects’), while in adjectival contexts, they can be modified by degree adverbs and be negated by negative prefixes (such as il était très fatigué ‘he was very tired’ or un livre inintéressant ‘an uninteresting book’). Due to their mixed status, participles easily undergo category change, becoming verbs, adjectives, or nouns. Given their flexibility, participles enter a large variety of constructions, including absolutes, reduced relatives, complement clauses, and adjunct participles.