Present participles: Categorial classification and derivation

Abstract

The paper focuses on the categorial status of present participles in English and Hebrew, and on their formation. Using a large number of diagnostics, I show that while all present participles are verbal, only a subset of them are ambiguous, and have an adjectival reading in addition to their verbal one. I further claim that this subset is constrained aspectually: only stative verbs have adjectival present participle correlates. This constraint stems from the impoverished nature of the adjectival present participle morpheme, which is incapable of manipulating the aspectual properties of verbs. Having established a categorial split between two types of present participles, I argue that adjectival present participles are derived in the lexicon, and verbal ones—in the syntax, and outline the lexical operation deriving adjectival present participles from verbs. Finally, I discuss the prenominal position in English, showing that it must be analyzed as being able to host reduced relative clauses, and not only APs. The analysis offered in the paper sheds light on the nature of participles, reinforcing the view that ambiguous participles do not belong to a “mixed” or “neutralized” category, but rather correspond to two homophonous forms—one verbal and one adjectival.