Russian Sounds and Inflections

19. Participles and Gerunds

19 PARTICIPLES AND GERUNDS 19.1. INTRODUCTION A PARTICIPLE is a fully declinable adjective derived from a verb. A GERUND, also sometimes called a verbal adverb, is a noninflected verbal form without person or tense markers, which can take the place of an inflected verb form in a subordinate clause, provided the subject is the same in both main and subordinate clauses. Except for the perfective passive participle , which exhibits considerable frequency of use, participles and gerunds tend to be used more in formal writing than in speech and in informal writing. In Russian, PARTICIPLES often represent condensations of relative clauses, meaning “who or which did/does something”. They are associated with two main constructions, one corresponding to a restrictive relative clause, the other to a non-restrictive relative clause. In the restrictive clause, the participle is placed before the modified noun: restrictive: ку  су лок (identifying) the man (who is/was) smoking the cigarette non-restrictive: лок, ку  су (descriptive) the man, who is/was smoking a cigarette, … GERUNDS are a kind of pro-verb. They take the place of a conjugated verb form when the tense and person are clear from context, and when the subjects of both verbs are identical. If two coordinated actions overlap, the imperfective gerund is used: Ку  су, лок мдло шл о лц. Smoking a cigarette, the man slowly walked down the street. If one action precedes the other, the perfective gerund is used:  ку  су, лок сл  ушл. Having lighted a cigarette, the man got up and left. 19.1. INTRODUCTION 393 While gerunds can only be active, participles can be either ACTIVE or PASSIVE. The Russian participle and gerund system tends toward one dominated not by tense but by aspect, so that for either aspect (imperfective or perfective), a verb will have a gerund, an active participle, and a passive participle. The ideal system looks like this, illustrated on the example of impf.  ю, pf. о  о ю): Gerund Active participle Passive participle Imperfective  ю м Perfective о (ш) о ш о   The complete model is not fulfilled by many or even most verbs. As a rule, only transitive verbs (verbs taking accusative-case complements) form passive participles, and many verbs even when transitive do not form the imperfective passive participle. Many verbs do not form the imperfective gerund, for no evident formal or semantic reason. Imperfective verbs occasionally form the gerund and participle in -(ш)-, for example, (ш), ш. Additionally, imperfective verbs sometimes form a passive participle participle in -- or -- in special meanings, for example к!. See further commentary in Sections 19.5, 19.6, 19.8.7. 19.1.1. PARTICIPIAL STEMS AND ASYMMETRIES Imperfective participles are formed on the present/imperative stem, while perfective participles add suffixes to the infinitive/past stem: to the past stem if it differs from the infinitive stem. Since the contemporary gerund/participle system, dominated by aspect, bears the formal marks of a former system dominated by tense, a fact encoded in the base stems as just described, the Russian participial system is marked by a deep-running formal asymmetry . Not only the stems, but also the suffixal markers for ‘gerund’, ‘active’ and ‘passive’ are different depending on whether the verb is imperfective (formerly, present) or perfective (formerly, past). For example, the imperfective gerund is marked by -, the perfective gerund by -(ш); see  vs. о (ш). Were the system more regular, the respective forms would be either , * о  or (ш), о (ш). Similarly , the active participles under a symmetrical system would be either ю, * о ю or ш, о ш; and the passive participles would be either м, * о м or  , о  . The matter of formal asymmetry is complicated by the fact that the role of imperfective passive participle is often fulfilled by the formal 394 19. PARTICIPLES AND GERUNDS reflexive active participle. For example, с с will usually substitute for !с м. See further discussion in Section 19.4. below. 19.2. IMPERFECTIVE GERUND (IG) The IG often conveys the sense “while doing”; thus,  can be translated as “while reading”. The IG is formed on the surface present stem (3.p.pl. minus -у or -) of an imperfective verb, with the ending - {-′a}, respelled - after a hushing consonant. Stress follows the stress of the 1.p.sg. non-past. Examples: Verb Present stem Imperfective gerund гоо гоо гоо- гоо дм дмлю дмл - дмл люб л$б люб- люб с с с- с лк  л у л - л смо см  смо- смо цло цлю цлу- цл  ю  -  and so on. Second-conjugation verbs глд, л%, мол , сд, со, &од exhibit root-stress in this form, despite having end-stress in the 1.p.sg.: глд, л% , м л , сд, с , sometimes сд (from суд) The following verbs form the IG on the infinitive stem, extended by --: д  д  (←д  --), -с  -с , -'  -' . The IG of б! is exceptional: бду . The verb д forms either regular д or, colloquial, ду . The infrequently used, slightly substandard IG of &  is ду . Many verbs do not form, or rarely form, the IG. These include: a. Velar-stems, e...