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My earlier understanding was that Participle phrases act as only adjectives. Many web sources say that way. However, there are many sources which say they act as adjectives and adverbs.

Example: Smiling from ear to ear, Anne opened the present. In the above example, the source takes it as an adjective which modifies Anne.

The source goes on with similar examples and there is no mention of adverbial function.

Example: Singing a silly song, we walked along the sidewalk. Here as well, another source takes the participle as an adjective modifying 'we'. If we ask the question "how we walked" it could be an adverb, modifying the independent clause "we walked along the sideway".

The following website also says Participle phrases as adjectives. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-participial-phrase-1691588

Now, we have some other sources that take participle phrases as adverbs along with adjectives.

Example: 'Bored from what she saw, Kate turned off the TV.' Here, instead of taking it as an adjective which modifies Kate, (as in the other examples) the phrase has been taken as an adverb that answers "Why did Kate turn off the TV?'

I would like your thoughts on this.

PS: Of course, there is another way (the second way) that participles function as adjectives like in 'shining star' or 'dancing girl.'

brp7
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1 Answers1

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Participles are verbs.

Some adjectives have been formed from participles and retain the "-ing" or "-ed" ending.

Just because a word or phrase modifies a noun does not make it an adjective. So "Smiling from ear to ear" is a phrase that describes "Anne". That does not make it an adjective. You can't form a comparative, nor can you use adverbs of degree like "very".

Many grammar books for children are very confused (and confusing) about this. They call "anything that modifies a noun" an "adjective".

There is sometimes ambiguity. But usually this is only syntactic ambiguity (there are different ways to parse the sentence) not semantic ambiguity (the meaning is the same either way).

James K
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  • But don't we have prepositional phrases that act as adjectives and adverbs - with no comparatives? As adjective e.g. 'I am adopting the dog with the fleas.' As adverb e.g. We climbed up the very steep hill.
  • What could be wrong in this sentence?: 'Being driven too fast, the car skidded and overturned.' (Participle for "They were driving the car too fast. It skidded and overturned) OR 'Driven too fast, the car skidded and overturned.' (Participle for 'They drove the car/The car was driven too fast....)
    • – brp7 Mar 27 '24 at 16:19
  • The problem is I don't know what "act as adjectives" means. If you mean "modify a noun", then lots of things that aren't adjectives can modify a noun, and sometimes adjectives are used in ways that don't modify anything. So since "act as adjectives" is more or less meaningless, it is not a good basis for understanding grammar. – James K Mar 27 '24 at 17:13
  • Could you correct the question marked 2)? Online grammar-checking software marks some errors on that. – brp7 Mar 27 '24 at 17:59