Delahunty and Garvey
of speech, namely from verb to noun. Ving forms may also be adjectives
derived from verbs, for example, a crying baby, a peeping tom. Note that
a “present” participle, that is, the Ving form itself, whether as the progres-
sive or as an adjective, tells us nothing about when the activity occurred.
Whether the situation represented by Ving took place in the past, is occur-
ring at the time of speaking, or may occur in the future, is indicated by other
parts of the clause, such as by tense marking on an auxiliary verb. Gerunds
are similar: the events are not related to the time of speaking.
Traditionally, Ven has been called the past participle form of the verb.
When the Ven form occurs with the auxiliary have to create the perfect aspect
or with the auxiliary be to create the passive, it is usually regarded as an inflec-
tion because it does not cause a change in part of speech. However, there are
adjectives in English that are formally identical to past participles, e.g., broken
heart. In cases like this the affix is to be regarded as a derivational morpheme
because it does cause a change of part of speech. For some verbs, the past par-
ticiple form and the derived adjective form differ, e.g., A drunken sailor; She
has drunk all the martini. Again, although the Ven form is traditionally called
a “past” participle, like the “present” participle, the situations it represents are
not related to the time of speaking.
Exercise
By adding the Vs, Ved, Ving, and Ven inflections show that each of the
following words can be a verb: provide, help, demonstrate, outline,
promote.
Tests based on inflections are so valuable that some traditional grammar
books, especially those used to teach non-native speakers, provide extensive
lists of the principal parts of verbs. Rather than using inflections to identify
verbs, however, these grammars often suggest that students memorize these
vast lists. A sample of such a list appears below as Table 4: