The Ancient Greek participle is a non-finite nominal verb form declined for gender, number and case (thus, it is a verbal adjective) and has many functions in Ancient Greek. It can be active, middle or passive and can be used in the present, future, aorist and perfect tense. These tenses normally represent not absolute time but only time relative to the main verb of the sentence. In general, as it shows no personal endings, its main use is to express an action, situation etc. that accompanies the action, situation etc. expressed by the main verb.
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Uses of the participle
Three main syntactic uses of the participle can be distinguished: (a) the participle as a modifier of a noun (attributive participle) (b) the participle used as an obligatory argument of a verb (supplementary participle), (c) the participle as an adverbial satellite of a verbal predicate (circumstantial or adverbial participle).
The attributive participle
The attributive participle is often, though not always, used with the article (which can be either generic or particular); it functions as a common adjective, it can be in every tense stem, and it is on a par with – and thus often translated as – a relative clause. It shows agreement with a noun, present or implied, in a sentence, and can be assigned any syntactic role an adjective can hold.
Like any adjective it can be used substantively (or be nominalized) by omission of an understood noun (easily recoverable from the context):
Many participles of this sort are equivalent to – and thus translated as – nouns, e.g.:
An adverbial notion may be inherent in an attributive participle; the usual notions are those of purpose or consequence (in the future tense), and condition (in all tense stems but the future, with negative μή). The following example has a future participle indicating purpose:
The supplementary participle
The supplementary participle is always without the article (predicative position of the participle is employed) and can be in any tense stem. This participle has two major uses: (1) in indirect discourse, and (2) not in indirect discourse.
The supplementary participle in indirect statements
When in this use, the participle corresponds to a particular tense and mood of a simple indicative of any tense, and, if accompanied by the particle ἄν, potential optative or potential indicative. Verbs taking such a participial clause as an object complement are:
i) Verbs of perceiving, knowing, discovering, remembering and so on such as: ὁράω "see that", ἀκούω "hear that", αἰσθάνομαι "perceive, notice that", γιγνώσκω "come to know, perceive, realize that", ἀγνοέω "not to know", καταλαμβάνω"find (on arrival) that", εὑρίσκω "find that", αἱρέω "catch, detect someone doing something" (passive: ἁλίσκομαι), μανθάνω "learn, know that", οἶδα "know that", σύνοιδα "know (as a witness), or be conscious that", ἐπίσταμαι "understand that", τίθημι "consider that" μέμνημαι "remember that", ἐπιλανθάνομαι "forget that", etc.
ii) Verbs of presentation, i.e. verbs meaning '"announce, show, prove etc."' such as: ἀγγέλλω "report that", (ἀπο-, ἐπι-) δείκνυμι "show, explain, point out that", ἐλέγχω "prove that" etc.
In many of the above cases this participle is interchangeable with a clause introduced by ὅτι or ὡς, for example:
The following case constructions are available for a supplementary participle:
a. The subject of the participle and the subject of the governing verb are coreferential, the participle being put in the nominative case, agreeing with it (we are dealing with a so-called nominative plus participle construction; see also nominative and infinitive):
b. The supplementary participle has a subject of its own (there is no coreference) and both the participle and its subject are put in the accusative case, just like an accusative and infinitive construction. This is the case where the argument of the verb is not the noun, even though it seems to be an accusative object, but the verbal notion expressed by the participle itself:
In each of the above sentences, if the participle is taken away, then the remaining construction is ungrammatical, considering that each governing verb retains its initial meaning. This proves that the noun or pronoun is an argument of the participle only, rather than of the verb.
However, with verbs like ὁράω "see", ἀκούω "hear", εὑρίσκω "find" etc., there is another possible construction that does not involve indirect speech, but is a mere description of a sensory input:
In the above sentences αὐτόν and Σωκράτους are second arguments of the verbs εἶδον and ἀκούω respectively, while the participles are added as their third arguments (in modern linguistic terms called (verbal) secondary predicates or small clauses). With verbs such as ἀκούω which normally take an object in the genitive, the distinction between the two types of construction is clear. Compare the above example, where Σωκράτους is in the genitive case, with the one below, where Κῦρον is in the accusative case:
The supplementary participle not in indirect discourse
When this participle is used not in indirect discourse, the following constructions are possible:
i) It is part of a predicate formed out by a copula verb, used mostly as an auxiliary verb; such verbs are: εἰμί “be”, γίγνομαι “become”, rarely ὑπάρχω “happen to be”.
ii) It forms a predicate with a quasi-copular verb that expresses a way of being, like δῆλός εἰμι, φαίνομαι/φανερός εἰμι be manifest, λανθάνω be hidden, unobserved, unseen, unnoticed, unaware etc., οἴχομαι be gone, away or absent, τυγχάνω happen to be, φθάνω be beforehand with etc. Semantically, with all these verbs it is the participle itself that expresses the main action, while in many cases the quasi-copular verb qualifies this action almost like an adverbial constituent.
All these verbs always have a subject that is corefential with the subject of the participle; only the verbs λανθάνω and φθάνω may have an accusative object, as a third argument of the verb, denoting the person from whom someone/something is kept hidden or the person that someone overtakes in the action expressed by the participle.
NOTE: some of those verbs (such as verbs of presentation: δῆλός εἰμι, φανερός εἰμι, φαίνομαι etc.) may also be used as governing verbs in indirect discourse clausal constructions introduced by the particles ὅτι or ὡς.
iii) It is the complement of verbs denoting ‘’’commencement, continuation (patience, tolerance) or termination (fatigue) of an action’’’, and it is always in the present tense stem; such verbs are: ὑπάρχω begin, take the initiative in, ἄρχομαι start, begin, παύω cause to cease, stop from, παύομαι cease, stop, λήγω leave off, cease, ἀπαγορεύω give up, κάμνω be tired or weary, διαβιῶ spend my whole life, διαμένω, διάγω, διαγίγνομαι, oὐ διαλείπω, διατελῶ continue, keep up, etc., ἀνέχομαι tolerate, περιοράω overlook etc. With these verbs the participle’s subject is coreferent with the verb’s subject, if there is no object in the structure, or else with the object, and the participle agrees in case (nominative or accusative) with this word.
ἔπαυσεν δὲ τοὺς συμμάχους ὑμῶν ἀφισταμένους. He stopped your allies from revolting from you.iv) A supplementary participle can be used with verbs expressing passions of the soul, such as ἀγανακτῶ be vexed, αἰσχύνομαι be ashamed, ἥδομαι be pleased, χαίρω be happy, λυποῦμαι be sorry, ὀργίζομαι get angry etc.
v) Finally, it is used with some verbs not easy to classify: εὖ/καλῶς/κακῶς/δίκαια/δεινὰ ποιῶ behave well, honourably, fairly, badly, χαρίζομαι gratify, favour, ἀδικῶ do wrong, νικῶ defeat, περιγίγνομαι prevail, survive, κρατῶ have the better of, ἡττῶμαι be worsted by, λείπομαι be left behind, fall short.
The circumstantial (adverbial) participle
The circumstantial participle, used as a satellite of another verbal form, is always without the article (i.e. it is put in the predicative position). It is added to a noun or pronoun to denote the circumstance under which the action of another verbal form (a finite verb or an infinitive/another participle) takes place. The action of the main verb is the main one.
It is also called adverbial because it qualifies the main verb like any other adverb, adverbially used adjective, adverbial prepositional phrase, adverbial clause or supplementary predicate. In most cases it has the force of a dependent clause denoting time, cause, purpose, supposition, opposition, concession. Often it denotes manner-means or any other attendant circumstance.
Two main constructions can be distinguished:
i) the participle agrees in case (and most of the times in gender and number) with a noun or pronoun that is an argument of the main verb, usually subject, direct or indirect object or dative of interest of any kind. In this case the subject of the participle is coreferent to that verbal argument (participium conjuctum). ii) participial phrases, composed by the participle and a subject, which form a full new predicate, additional to the verb predicate.
Two subtypes can be distinguished:
(1) Genitive absolute: the participle and a noun or pronoun (its subject) stand in the genitive case; in this construction normally the subject of the participle has no coreference to any other verbal argument, especially the subject. (2) Accusative absolute: it is found when the verb in which the participle belongs is impersonal or so used, or when it is an impersonal expression; in this case the subject of the participle is usually an infinitive, as it would be if an impersonal verb in some finite mood was used. The participle is always in the neuter gender. Nevertheless, it is possible for a personal verb’s participle to stand with its subject in the accusative absolute construction, if only it is preceded by the particles ὡς or ὥσπερ and expresses cause or conditional comparison respectively.
Use of tenses
Normally all circumstantial participles, according to the grammatical tense stem used for their morphological formation, express only time relative to that of the main verb, but they always express stage of action. Nevertheless, the future stem is only used for denoting purpose, and seldom for denoting future cause (in the latter case normally the particle ὡς precedes the participle).
Kinds of circumstantial participles
Temporal
Causal
Some particles may precede a causal participle:
a. ἅτε, οἷον, οἷα, ἅτε δή, οἷον δή, οἷα δή: the reason/cause is presented by the speaker, narrator, writer etc. as an independent fact (objective reason/cause): b. ὡς: the reason/cause is presented as an idea, thought or personal opinion etc. of the subject of the main verb (subjective cause or reason).Purpose
The final (telic) participle (expresses purpose) is used with the future tense stem. It forms the negation with μή. If the participle is modifying a verb that expresses movement, then it usually stands alone. If the verb does not express a movement then the participle is often found with the particle ὡς (in this case the intention of the subject is underlined as a personal consideration, and in many cases it is difficult to determine whether this participle is final or causal).
Conditional
The conditional participle is used in all tense stems except the future (negated by μή). It stands as the protasis (:hypothesis) of a conditional sentence, the main verb being the apodosis. It can express any type of conditional thought, but is by far more often used alongside with potential moods or future indicative (and future-like expressions), expressing any kind of future condition.
Concessive
The concessive participle (denotes opposition, concession, limitation etc.) may be preceded by the particles καὶ, καίπερ, καὶ ταῦτα, οὐδέ, μηδἐ (= although) or/and followed by ὅμως (= nevertheless) in the main verb structure.
Attendant circumstances
A participle may also express any other attendant circumstance under which an action takes place: