Like a rolling stone: the changing use of English premodifying present participles

Abstract

This article develops a functional classification of the different uses of English premodifying present participles and applies it to historical corpus data to show that premodifying present participles have undergone functional change. It is argued that three core functions can be distinguished: identifying uses (e.g. the following evening); type-oriented uses (e.g. a talking dog) and situation-oriented uses (e.g. a passing car). Historically, the use of premodifying present participles has shifted from predominantly identifying and type-oriented uses, to predominantly situation-oriented uses, particularly in narrative discourse. This means that premodifying present participles have come to fulfil a function that is less typical of noun-phrase-internal modification, instead being increasingly used to denote backgrounded situations that are temporally aligned to the situation evoked by their main clause. The shift can be interpreted as an instance of functional clausalization.

Metaphoric Noun Variants and Modification Types in Undergraduate ESL Students’ Academic Writing Texts

“…It replicates previous researches conducted on analysis of nouns and modification types following Fang, Z, & et al (2006), Douglas, B. & et al (2008) and Smet, H. & et al (2014) to name a few.…”

“…While the head nouns are still concrete, tension is noted in the lexico-grammatical mapping where the role of adjective, in S3 is adopted by a noun 'effect -effective' and in S4, a verb is functioning as an adjective 'reflect -reflective'. In essence this characterization is shared with adjectives (Smet & Vancayzeele, 2014). According to Halliday and Matthiessen's (1999) metaphor taxonomy, such premodifications are labeled metaphoric because of the junction in meaning adopted between the initial noun form to the derived adjective in S3, and similarly from verb to adjective in S4.…”

“…According to Halliday and Matthiessen's (1999) metaphor taxonomy, such premodifications are labeled metaphoric because of the junction in meaning adopted between the initial noun form to the derived adjective in S3, and similarly from verb to adjective in S4. Although the use of participles has been cited to be a common strategy for premodification by Smet & Vancayzeele (2014), it was not obvious in ESL texts analysed. The shift of verbs to function as nouns boosts students' vocabulary repertoire and allows them to be creative in manipulating and expanding lexis to function as premodifiers and/or classifiers.…”

English participles in the derivational paradigm

“…Alexiadou et al (2014) link the additional restrictions placed on the argument structure of adjectival passive participles to their meaning, suggesting semantic distinctions between the adjectival passives and their verbal bases. DeSmet & Vancayzeele (2015) map a historical tendency for ing-participles in pre-nominal positions to move from uses which describe inherent, permanent properties (as in, for instance, a folding door) towards increased eventive uses, which relate to temporary properties (as in a passing waiter). They generally distinguish between participles in pre-modifying positions and participial adjectives, although they also point out that it determining the degree of semantic relatedness between the participle and the base verb, and determining whether the status of adjective has been reached, may prove to be an intractable problem since derivational dissociation could be assumed to a gradient phenomenon (the authors point to the work ofHay & Baayen 2005).…”