Grammar Handout: Participles |
V.R.Y |
Participles are verbal adjectives. Like adjectives, they agree with the noun they modify in gender, number and case. Like adjectives, they can act like a noun (especially personal agent). Like verbs, they can take the direct object. Like verbs, they can introduce subordinate clauses, but they do so without using conjunctions or adverbs. Like verbs, they can introduce other constructions (e.g. indirect discourse).
Latin only has two particples (as opposed to, say, Greek, which has 12 participles): the active and the passive, both of which are used indifferently with regard to time--the same form can be used for present, future, perfect or else, depending on the context.
In most cases, the concept is not hard to grasp, just a matter of translation. You can always start from a literal translation and then use the following translation tips to do a more elegant translation.
1) English likes to use two finite verbs to express two actions in a logical or temporal sequence: "Hannibal captured and burned the city".
Latin prefers to use the combination of a finite verb and a participle, and although the literal meaning may be "proleptic" (meaning anachronistic or out of sequence), this is much more idiomatic than the piling up of finite verbs in Latin:
Urbem captam incedit Hannibal. Hannibal captured and burned the city. (lit. Hannibal burned the city, a captured one)
This is much more idiomatic than urbem cepit et incedit Hannibal. (two finite verbs)
In your English translation, switch the passive voice of "captured city" back to the active, and use two finite verbs: "Hannibal captured and burned the city".
The other way of saying the same in Latin, urbem incensam cepit Hannibal (lit., Hannibal captured the burned city) is equally idiomatic as Urbem captam incedit Hannibal. The former might be out of logical/temporal sequence, since Hannibal cannot burn the city before he captures it, but the usage is common in Latin and the reader must supply the logical sequence for him/herself.
2) When it is appropriate, you can use an English noun to replace the Latin participle:
ante solem orientem before sunrise (lit. before the sun rising)
Latin is weak in nouns; the Romans prefer to use the participle, which has more verbal vividness than the noun:
coniurantes fugiunt ex urbe. The conspirators flee from the city. (lit. "conspiring men" flee from the city)
deprecatus sum ne quis inreuerentem (understood me) operis argueret. I apologized so that no one would accuse me of being disrespectful toward my work. (lit., I apologized so that no one would accuse the "being disrespectful one" toward work)
Id contingere non potest electa recitantibus. That is not an option for the people who only read selected passages. (lit., that is not possible to happen for the reading people who read selected things)
This again is only a matter of translation. Participles, like verbs, can introduce subordinate clauses, but they do so without conjunctional adverbs/particles and therefore only context will help you decide the type of subordinate clause. Participles introducing subordinate clauses can often be translated as "while" (temporal, circumstantial, causal, concessive) or "who", "which" (relative), "although" (concessive), "since" (causal), "after" (temporal), "when" (temporal):
ut oculus sic animus se non videns alia cernit. The mind, just like the eye, while not seeing itself, sees other things. (lit., the mind, just like the eye, not seeing itself sees other things.)
Oculi et aures te non sentientem speculabuntur. Eyes and ears will be watching you, although you are not aware. (lit., eyes and ears will be watching you being unaware)
When the participle and the finite verb are in a natural sequence, the traditional way of translating the participle (having done so and so, having been so and so) might be employed:
Qua ratione ductus, grauiora opera lusibus iocisque distinguo. Being led by this reason, I decorate my more serious works with trifles and humors.
Note. When analyzing the syntax, it is important to identify what the declined form of the participle is referring to. In this sentence, the reader must be able to recognize the fact that ductus is in the nominative and therefore must share the same subject with the subject of the main verb, distinguo.
Translate the following sentences, first literally, and then into idiomatic English.