Catalan
Page 50
There is a considerable number of adjectives that resemble participles but which are not derived (directly) from verbs: desgraciat ‘unhappy’, indefinit ‘indefinite’, desmesurat ‘disproportionate’, indiscriminat ‘indiscriminate’, and so on.
21.1.1 OBSERVATIONS ON (PAST) PARTICIPLE FORMS
The formation of regular and irregular participles is covered in 16.5.3. There follow two points of special note.
Estar and ser (ésser)
The participle of estar is regular estat. Although, as the participle of ésser (ser), in some dialects, the form sigut is common, the form estat (which is also the participle of estar) is preferred in formal contexts and registers. Preference for estat has the additional practical advantage for foreign learners, in that it circumvents, in the compound tenses, uncertainty over the choice between ser and estar. See Chapter 30.
Què ha sigut/estat això?
What was that?
Aquesta ha estat una empresa molt perillosa.
This has been a very dangerous undertaking.
Morir and matar
Although matat ‘killed’ exists as the regular participle of matar ‘to kill’, mort (from morir ‘to die’) replaces it in most contexts, so that Brutus ha mort Cèsar ‘Brutus has killed Caesar’ would be the usual perfect tense form corresponding to the preterite Brutus matà Cèsar ‘Brutus killed Caesar’. Matat is used, however, when the idea of killing is stressed (especially, in the reflexive form, for suicides) or when the emphasis is on death caused by violent accident:
Obsedida pels remordiments, s’ha matat.
Obsessed by remorse, she killed herself.
Tres persones s’han matat avui per l’autopista.
Three people have been killed today on the motorway.
21.1.2 SYNTAX OF PARTICIPLES: AGREEMENT
In addition to when the participle acts as a true adjective (21.Iii), agreement occurs in passive constructions, in compound tenses using auxIIIary tenir or ser, and in compound tenses with haver when third-person direct-object clitic pronouns are involved.
(i) The passive voice (see Chapter 29). When a transitive verb is used passively the participle agrees in number and gender with the subject of the passive construction (which can be represented as the object of the corresponding active version of the same sentence):
La ciutat ha estat presa per l’enemic.
The city has been taken by the enemy.
(cf. L’enemic ha pres la ciutat.
The enemy have taken the city.)
Les seves ironies eren enteses per tothom.
Her ironies were understood by everyone.
(cf. Tothom entenia les seves ironies.
Everyone understood her ironies.)
(ii) Tenir sometimes substitutes haver before the past participle, in the idiom Tinc entès que … ‘I gather/understand that …’, and in some other contexts involving transitive verbs, to add connotations of decisiveness or to emphasize the idea of possession, or responsibility of the agent, the adjectival function of the participle is prominent. Here the participle agrees in number and gender with the object:
Tinc estudiada una solució, (cf. He estudiat una solució.) I have thought out a solution.
No tenies demanada la nova edició? (cf. No havies demanat la nova edició?) Hadn’t you ordered the new edition?
Teníem resolt d’acomiadar-los. We had resolved to dismiss them.
Ja tenia preparada una contestació. She had already prepared an answer, or She already had an answer ready.
This type of construction with tenir can facilitate a more flexible word order, giving even more prominence to the adjectival force of the participle, and with the idea of possession frequently highlighted:
Ja tenim la taula parada.
We have laid the table already.
(cf. Ja tenim parada la taula./Ja hem parat la taula.)
Hem de tenir la taula parada abans de les nou.
We must have the table laid before nine o’clock.
Tinc estalviades gairebé cinquanta mil lliures.
I have saved up almost fifty thousand pounds.
(iii) The use of ser/ésser/esser as an auxIIIary verb in compound (perfect) tenses survives only in North Catalonia and in Balearic dialects, principally with reflexives and with verbs expressing movement (17.2.1.2), Agreement of the past participle with the subject of the verb occurs in all cases:
Ells són venguts/Elles són vengudes (= han vingut) de lluny.
They have come from far away.
Ells se són asseguts./Elles se són assegudes. (= s’han assegut)
They have sat down.
(iv) Agreement of the participle with haver. Past participles forming compound tenses with the auxIIIary haver may agree in gender and number with any of the pronouns el, la, els, les, en, in any of their contextual forms. That is, agreement occurs when one of these third-person pronouns precedes the participle:
He portat el diari → L’he portat.
I’ve brought the newspaper → it.
He portat la revista → L’he portada.
I’ve brought the magazine →it.
He portat els diaris → Els he portats.
I’ve brought the newspapers →them.
He portat les revistes → Les he portades.
I’ve brought the magazines →them.
–Has dut pa?–Sí que n’he dut.
‘Have you brought any bread?’ ‘Yes (I have brought some).’
–Has dut farina?–Sí que n’he duta.
‘Have you brought any flour?’ ‘Yes (I have brought some).’
–Han dut ous?–Sí que n’han duts.
‘Have they brought any eggs?’ ‘Yes (they have brought some).’
–Heu dut olives?–Sí que n’hem dutes.
‘Have you brought any olives?’ ‘Yes (we have brought some).’
Em sabia greu d’haver-la portada.
I regretted having brought it.
In modern usage there is a strong tendency for the participle to remain invariable in these cases, although agreement is retained more frequently with la than with the other third-person pronouns or en.
–Les claus, que les has portat/portades? –Sí que les he portat/portades.
‘Did you bring the keys?’ ‘Yes I did bring them.’
Thus l’he rebuda Ί have received it’ with participle agreement would probably be as common as or more common than the alternative l’he rebut (where 1’ = la carta ‘the letter’), whereas els he rebuts, with a third-person masculine plural object (e.g. els paquets ‘the parcels’), would be less common than els he rebut. Likewise with en:
D’aquestes opcions, només n’hem considerat/considerades dues ο tres.
We have considered only two or three of these options.
When the conjugated verb is voler ‘want’, poder ‘be able’, saber ‘know how to’, fer ‘have (something) done’, gosar ‘dare’ or haver de ‘have to’, prescription commends the still widespread practice of making the participle agree (when, as is optional, the object pronoun precedes the conjugated verb, even though the direct object clearly belongs logically to the dependent infinitive), as in:
Les peres eren podrides i les hem hagudes de llençar. (= … hem hagut de llençar-les.)
The pears were rotten and we have had to throw them away.
La seva resposta, no l’he sabuda interpretar. (= … no he sabut interpretar-la.)
I haven’t been able to interpret their reply.
Note, by the way, that though the conventional presentation in Catalan grammar speaks of agreement of past participles with preceding third-person direct object clitics, se is always excluded. Agreement with indirect object clitics li/els/hi certainly never takes place. But whereas agreement with the clitics of the series el/la/els/les relates to these only in a direct object function, some examples of en, with agreement, correspond to subjects (25.2), or to complements of noun phrases:
–Han vingut moltes dependentes? –N’ha vi
nguda una.
‘Have many assistants come?’ ‘One has.’
De peticions, se n’han presentades moltes.
As for petitions, a lot have been presented.
As agreement of the participle with a preceding clitic pronoun is always optional, and as the evolution of the language can be seen to be towards non-agreement as the norm, foreign students of Catalan can be guided by the principle of ‘if in doubt, keep the past participle invariable’.
21.1.3 SYNTAX OF PARTICIPLES: PARTICIPLE PHRASES
Participle phrases are common in Catalan. Such structures are often the same as in English:
Me’n vaig anar, convençut que ningú no en diria res.
I left, convinced that nobody would say anything.
Decidides a resoldre el misteri …
Determined to resolve the mystery …
Van emprendre la campanya electoral encoratjats per les enquestes.
They embarked on the electoral campaign heartened by the opinion polls.
Sometimes English will have a present participle/gerund in the corresponding expression:
Ajagut damunt el sofà no feia més que mirar la televisió.
Lying on the sofa he was just watching the television.
Va fer tota la carrera allotjada a casa d’una tia seva.
She did her whole university course lodging with an aunt.
English does however have other structures which can be rendered in Catalan by a participle phrase as in:
Ho rebutjà irritada.
She turned it down irritably.
–Però què fas? va preguntar alarmada.
‘But what are you doing?’ she asked in alarm.
el seu germà, nascut el 1938 i mort el 1991
his brother, who was born in 1938 and died in 1991
Particularly to be noted is the order participle + subject in constructions where the participle and its subject form a subordinate (usually temporal) absolute adverbial phrase:
Investigats tots els detalls, aviat formularem una conclusió.
Now that all the details have been investigated we shall soon formulate a conclusion.
Ateses les nostres dificultats …
Given our difficulties …
Arribada la núvia, va començar la festa.
Once the bride had arrived the party began.
(Arribar appears to be the only verb of motion allowing this construction. One would not hear *Partida la comitiva, sobrevingué un llarg silenci for ‘When the delegation had left a long pause followed’. The equivalent would be a full clause: Quan hagué partit la comitiva …).
Participial constructions often have a conditional or concessive sense:
Portat així el fulard, té un no sé què de distingit.
If you wear the scarf like this, it looks rather distinguished.
Posats a criticar, el plat principal era massa salat pel meu gust.
If we’re being critical, the main course was a bit too salty for my taste.
Girada la pedra cap per avall, les inscripcions es llegeixen més clarament.
If the stone is turned upside down, the inscriptions can be read more clearly.
When the participle has an agent expressed, the agent can be introduced by the preposition per or, perhaps as frequently, by the compound per part de:
Acabada la introducció pel/per part del president, s’inicià el debat.
When the introduction by the chairman was finished, the discussion began.
These absolute participle phrases are favoured in literary and formal written styles, but they are not alien to the everyday language and they figure in a number of idioms (adverbial) and popular sayings:
Fet i fet, tampoc no sóc tan ase. Come to that, I’m not so daft.
tot comptat i debatut when all is said and done.
Ben mirat, potser ens vam equivocar. On reflection, perhaps we were wrong.
Feta la llei feta la trampa, (proverb) Laws are made to be broken.
Morta la cuca, mort el verí. (proverb) You’ve got to kill the insect to get rid of the poison.
Fet i fet, tampoc no sóc tan ase. Come to that, I’m not so daft.
tot comptat i debatut when all is said and done.
Ben mirat, potser ens vam equivocar. On reflection, perhaps we were wrong.
Feta la llei feta la trampa, (proverb) Laws are made to be broken.
Morta la cuca, mort el verí. (proverb) You’ve got to kill the insect to get rid of the poison.
21.2 PRESENT PARTICIPLE
Many (but not all) verbs present an adjectival present participle, formed by addition of the following endings to the lexical stem:
Conjugation I cant(-ar) -ant
Conjugation II tém(-er) -ent
reb(-re) -ent
Conjugation III dorm(-ir) -ent
(serv(-ir) -ent)
To be observed is the coincidence in form between the present participle and gerund of both first and second conjugation verbs. But in the third conjugation -ent (present participle) contrasts with -int (gerund). (A notable oddity is the mixed-conjugation escriure ‘write’ which has the participle escrivent but gerund escrivint.) This distinction between participle and gerund can be seen in pairs like:
Porta aigua bullent. Bring boiling water. (adjectival participle)
L’aigua està bullint. The water is boiling. (gerund)
Arribaran el mes vinent. They will arrive next month.
els convidats que aniran venint the guests who will be turning up
la Bella Dorment Sleeping Beauty
Si estan dormint, no els molesteu. If they are sleeping, don’t disturb them.
Present participles agree in number with the noun they modify, but no gender distinction is made in either singular or plural forms:
m.sg. and f.sg. m.pl. and f.pl.
semblant semblants similar
atraient atraients attractive
Some present participles have become established as nouns, and these cases do have specific feminine forms:
l’aprenent l’aprenenta apprentice el president la presidenta president
l’assistent l’assistenta assistant el servent la serventa servant
l’estudiant l’estudianta student
Compare with the above, however, other nominalized present participles without gender agreement: el/la cantant ‘singer’, el/la combatent ‘combatant’, el/la suplent ‘substitute’, el/la comerciant ‘trader’, el/la contrincant ‘opponent’, etc. (more details in 1.1.5).
21.2.1 SYNTAX OF PRESENT PARTICIPLE
The present participle is basically an adjective, and it is thus to be carefully distinguished from the gerund (see above bullent vs. bullint, vinent vs. venint, and also 22.1.2 and 22.2.4.2) whose function is fundamentally verbal. The present participle, then, is used to qualify a noun (and, like other adjectives, can itself be used, ‘pronominally’, as, for example, els creients ‘believers’). The point is reinforced by considering the adjectival value of suplent (‘substitute’, ‘deputy’, present participle of transitive suplir ‘substitute’, ‘stand in’) contrasted with the verbal function of gerund suplint (taking its own direct object) in the following pair:
Hem tingut un professor suplent.
We’ve had a stand-in teacher.
Hem tingut un professor nou suplint el nostre.
We’ve had a new teacher standing in for our usual one.
In the first case the adjectival suplent is tied closely in position after its noun, whereas the suplint clause has mobility within the sentence:
Suplint el nostre hem tingut un professor nou.
Hem tingut, suplint el nostre, un professor nou.
Many words in -nt are not strictly speaking participles but rather non-verbal adjectives: aparent, corrent, brillant, bastant, etc. While new -nt present participles are constantly being formed and becoming established, for example, canviant, ‘changing’, relaxant ‘relaxing’, they cannot be coined from any verb at will. English speakers must t
hus avoid the temptation to invent equivalents of English adjectival present participles in ‘-ing’ along the lines of *movent. (Note peces mòbils ‘moving parts’, un discurs commovedor ‘a moving speech’.) This can be seen in common instances like plegable ‘folding’, aigua potable ‘drinking water’, plantes enfiladisses ‘climbing plants’. In other cases, a Catalan (past) participle corresponds to English words in ‘-ing’:
ajagut lying
assegut sitting
atrevit daring
avorrit/ensopit boring
cansat tiring
divertit amusing
dormit sleeping, asleep
entretingut entertaining
pesat boring, irritating
suat sweating, hot
English speakers should also avoid the temptation to introduce the present participle (or gerund) in constructions where English ‘-ing’ corresponds to a relative clause in Catalan (see 22.1.2, 22.3.1, and 31.10i).
22 THE GERUND
22.1 THE GERUND: INTRODUCTION
22.1.1 ASPECT AND TENSE
The inflection of the gerund is dealt with at 16.5.2. The simple gerund itself is ‘tenseless’; the tense reference it conveys is always determined by the main verb which it accompanies, and with whose action it is simultaneous. As a verbal modifier, however, a gerund does have an aspectual connotation deriving from the simultaneity just mentioned, which can be considered either durative or progressive: