The Appositive Participle in Anglo-Saxon

Abstract

The twofold nature of the participle is sufficiently attested by the fact that it is universally defined as a verbal adjective. The genesis of this twofold nature has been interestingly discussed by Brugmann (I. F., v 88 ff.; Gr. Gr. §§ 479 f.) and by Delbrück (II, p. 477). Mine is the humbler task of pointing out the various manifestations of this dual nature as exemplified in the appositive use of the participle in Anglo-Saxon; to which is appended a brief survey of the same phenomena in the other Germanic languages. This is by no means an easy task, since the same participle may be dominantly adjectival in one sentence, prevailingly verbal in another, and equally divided between the two in a third. Of course, too, a participle may be used as a noun; but in such case it ceases to be a participle; hence in this paper no account is taken of the substantivized participle. However, certain adverbial uses of the participle are treated.