Suffixal Homophones

Dr. Azad H. Fatah

 As

adjectives, participles, the –ed participle can modify nouns or pronouns. It can sometimes stand alone, with the modified noun or pronoun implied. As verbals, participles can take an object. As verbals, participles can have tense (i.e., refer to past, present, or future) and voice (i.e., indicate that an agent is "actively" doing something or "passively" receiving some action).

 The

–ed has two homophonous shapes:  1. The –ed participle is inflectional, and verbal, as in:  He was frightened by an approaching train.  You should read the printed statement.  2. –ed adjectival is derivational because it can change the part of speech of the stem to which it is added. Additionally, it cannot close off the word. One can add another derivational suffix, as in unexpectedly, repeatedly, etc.  This is a complicated question.

 Verbal

–ed which is inflectional and participial is mostly followed by (by agent), consider the following example,  The only car repaired by that mechanic is mine.  If there is a whiz deletion (reduced relative clause), the –ed participle will be verbal, as in,  Any coin found on this site must be handed to the police.  The antecedent coin is post-modified by the relative clause (that may be found)

 The

verbal –ed cannot be preceded by a qualifier or intensifier, such as very, too, so, rather, etc.  For example, The invited guests all came. Here, we cannot put a qualifier such as very before the verb invited. Thus, the – ed is inflectional verbal and not adjectival. The -ed participial, verbal and inflectional can be found in non- finite -ed clauses, as in -Covered with confusion, they apologized abjectly.

 If

the –ed is adjectival, it can mostly follow the verb to be and linking verbs (which are seem, become, look, remain, feel, taste, etc.).  Consider the following example,  The tourist seems quite frightened.

 The

adjectival –ed can be preceded by more and most, as in

A

more complicated issue  The most confused student  Exercise  identify the type of the –ed, give sound reasons for your answers:  1. I was really worried about my brother.  2. After a while, I got bored and left.  3. They were bitterly disappointed at the result of the game.

 4.

I was disappointed by the quality of the printing.  5. She had the car cleaned.  6. People are confused about all the different labels on food these days.  7. He bought a stolen picture.  8. You are coming? I am so pleased. 