Participles [passive] & Gerundives- Part 1

In the last post we looked at passive sentence construction. Now we can move on to take a look at participles in Pali. If you're not familiar with participle use already, they can seem a little perpelexing. So we'll work through them slowly.
Whereas English has only past & present participle forms, participles in Pali have distinct past, present & also future/potential forms.

In Pali its common to identify six kinds of participles:

• Past Active Participles,
• Past Passive Participles,
• Present Active participles,
• Present Passive Participles,
• Absolutive / Indeclinable Participles,
• Future Passive / Gerundive / Potential Participles

It's important to understand that these names relate to how the participles are formed, on the present base etc. And do not relate to how they are used. For instance, past participles can be used to create aspect in any time period (past, present or future). See my video on English tenses. This post will focus mainly on their passive use.

Let's start off with what a participle is:

Participles are a kind of adjective formed from a verb base. Like verbs, they divide into Present, Past and Future; and each group can again be divided into Active and Passive. Being in the nature of adjectives most decline in the three genders - agreeing with their nouns (subjects), in number, gender and case.

We'll look in detail at how participles are formed in a later post, and the detail of how verbs are inflected and the different roots and stem later too. For now, I'll just give some brief indications and we'll concentrate on how participles get used, especially the passive participles; leaving the active participles to the next post.

Past Participles in Pali

The so-called “past passive participle” (also called the “passive perfect participle” and abbreviated to p.p.p.) usually signifies completed action (thus the latin term perfect = 'complete'). They are generally formed by adding –(i)ta or -na to the root of a verb. The suffix -ta is by far the most common. These are then declined like nouns in -a/ā to case, gender and number forms.

So for -ta we get:

	Masculine		Neuter		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-to	-tā	-taṃ	-tāni	-tā	-tāyo, -tā
Accusative	-taṃ	-te			-taṃ

For a full declension, there's a later post detailing the derivation of participles.

Past participles can be used in several ways:

Adjective like:

• as verbal adjectives, (a modifier to a noun)
  The annoyed girl..., the confused monk...
• as subject complements, (with copula)
  The girl is annoyed..., the monk is confused...
• in subordinate clauses,
  Annoyed, the girl left... Confused by ignorance, the monk wanders on...

Verb like:

• as (finite) verbs, - usually passive,
  [not possible in English]
• in periphrasis - combination with other auxiliary verbs to create aspect,
  The girl has annoyed the monk..., the monk will have confused the girl...

Noun like:

• & occasionally as verbal nouns ( in neuter only)
  The departed..., the beloved...

Note, although all of these examples employ past participles, none are in the simple past tense!
Let's now take a look some examples in Pāli...

as Adjectives

A past participle, when used as an adjective or a complement, must like all adjectives, agree in number, case & gender with the noun it qualifies. And usually precedes the noun (though not always).

niccaṃ	ubbiggaṃ	idaṃ	mano
adv	nom	nom	nom
	n	n	n
	sgl	sgl	sgl
	pp	pn-dem
constantly	agitated	this	mind
this constantly agitated mind...

te	citta-kathā	bahussutā
nom	nom	nom
m	m	m
pl	pl	pl
pn-3rd		pp
they	brilliant speakers	well versed
they (are) well versed brillant speakers

Being all in nominative, the first example could be rendered:

this mind, constantly agitated,...
this mind is constantly agitated...

Their meaning does not necessarily have to be past as in this example of a complement.

vimuttaṃ	cittan’ti	pajānāti
nom/acc	nom/acc	pres act
n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl
pp		3rd person
‘freed mind’		he knows
he knows, ‘(his) mind (is) freed’

The use of a past participle implies the perfect aspect (i.e. a completed action)

'is freed' or 'has been freed',

rather than continuous/progressive,

'is being freed'.

Absolute constructions

A special case of a subordinate clause is the absolute construction (not to be confused with the absolutive). It consists of a noun (or pronoun) and a participle, both in the same case: usually locative, occasionally genitive or rarely accusative. The past participle only gets used in locative absolutes. While the present participle is used in all types. Importantly, in an absolute clause the subject of the participle is different from that of the main verb.

brāhmaṇo	pakkante	sāriputte	kālam+akāsi,
nom	loc	loc	adv, aorist
m	m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
	pp		3rd person
the brahmin	departed	sariputta	his time done (died)
Sariputta departed, the Brahmin died

'kāla akāsi' literally ‘his time done’, is an euphemism meaning ‘he died’. The locative case ties Sariputta and the adjective pakkanta (past participle of pakkamati) ‘departed’ together. As a past participle tends to indicate an event prior to the main clause, it tends to carry the meaning ‘after’. So the absolute construction renders:

after Sariputta departed, the Brahmin died.

We'll cover more absolute constructions in the next post on present participles.

as Verbs

Unlike English, past participles can stand alone and function as finite verbs, in which case they are usually employed in a passive sense. Once we see a past participle we can look for its subject with which it agrees. When used as a main verb they will be in nominative case. So both the subject and the participle will be in nominative. Any agent will be in instrumental.

anusiṭṭho	so	mayā
nom	nom	instr.
m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl
pp	pn-3rd	pn-1st
taught	he	by me
he (was) taught by me

āropito	te	vādo
nom	gen	nom
m		m
sgl	sgl	sgl
pp	pn-2nd
refuted	your	argument
Refuted (is) your argument

mayā	ime	sattā	nimmitā
instr/abl	nom/acc	nom	nom
	m	m	m
sgl	pl	pl	pl
pn-1st	pn-dem		pp
by me	these	beings	created
these beings (are/were) created by me

Past participles in English, if used as a verb always have to be accompanied by an auxillary, so in order to render them an appropiate auxillary has to be added.

Though, Past participles when used as verbs in Pali, are mainly in passive voice, there are a few exceptions. They can be active if the verb is intransitive and if indicating motion, or 'to eat' or 'drink'. In which case, they may take an accusative object. Consider:

passive	active
Alcohol is drunk	I get drunk
The reason was forgotten	I have forgotten the reason

Remember, a good test for the passive voice is if you can append 'by me' to the end of the sentence and it still makes sense.

gotamo	nāma	gāmaṃ	osaṭo
nom		acc	nom
m		m	m
sgl		sgl	sgl
			pp
Gotama	indeed	village.	come to
Gotama (has) indeed come to the village

There are several clues as to the voice of the sentence:

• The past participle will agree in number and gender with their subject. This will be the patient if passive or the agent if active.
• If passive the past participle and the patient will be in nominative.
• The agent of a passive sentence will be in either instrumental or sometimes in genitive case.
• If the verb is transitive (i.e. has an object) it will be active.

Periphrasis - with auxiliary verbs

Past passive participles are often combined with auxiliary verbs (the present, past, or future forms of atthi, hoti, or bhavati), either expressed or implied.
This is termed periphrasis. 

bhikkhuno	rāgā	cittaṃ	vimuttaṃ	hoti
gen/dat	abl	acc	nom	pres act
m	m	n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
			pp	3rd pers
a/the monk’s	(from) infatuation	mind	freed	is
the monk’s mind is freed from infatuation

Present tense auxiliary verbs formed from √as (atthi etc.), & √hū (hoti etc.) can emphasize the present perfect aspect i.e. ‘is freed’ or ‘has been freed’. Whereas with bhavissati, they can mean “might have,” “would have,” “will have”.

Here is a video tutorial about Aspect and tense in Pali.

Tense vs Aspect & Participles in Pali

Following on from the previous tutorial on tenses of the English Language, this tutorial looks at Tense & Aspect in the Pali language. You will see the difference between inflection and auxiliary verb...

Warder explains auxiliary verbs on pg.233 of his 'Intro to Pali'. I think generally, the aspect comes from the participle (present part. = imperfect; past part = perfect) while the tense of the sentence comes from the auxiliary verb. Warder comments, 1st & 2nd pers forms of ‘√as’ (atthi) ie.

asi, attha, asmi, si, smi, asma, asmā, amhi, amha

with a past participle emphasizes the meaning of present perfect. eg. ‘I am done’. This includes constructions with pronouns in 1st or 2nd person with the auxiliary verb implied.
Forms of √hū (hoti) also can imply the perfect. If in the present tense this can be historical present, and continuous with what has happen or what had been done.  Thus in dialogue and direct speech we find √as as auxiliary, in narrative √hu.   The aorist of √hū (ahosi) stresses past perfect.

as Verbal nouns

Some past participles can also be used as verbal nouns and I think these are always in neuter.

bhagavato	bhāsitaṃ
dat/gen	nom/acc
m	n
sgl	sgl
	pp
blessed one’s	spoken/speech
…the blessed one’s speech….

‘bhagavato’ is a euphemism for the Buddha and is in genitive indicating the possessor of something. Usually the genitive term is placed immediately before that which is possessed. Here, bhāsitaṃ is a past participle of bhāsati meaning ‘spoken’ but here it is being used as a noun implying ‘that which was spoken’ i.e. the Buddha’s words. 
Other examples include:

pabbajito - 'the exiled' = a monk;
dinnaṃ – 'the given' = a gift

natthi	dinnaṃ	natthi	yiṭṭhaṃ
pres, act	acc	pres, act	acc
	m		m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
3rd	pp	3rd	pp
there is not	given	there is not	sacrificed
There is not the given, there is not the sacrificed

Future passive participles (F.P.P.) - Gerundives.

Also sometime referred to as the participle of necessity, the potential participle or gerundive (not to be confused with the gerund). As its name suggests this participle forms passive constructions, in fact, they are used only in passive structures. According to Warder, the ‘future passive participle‘ is used in any construction requiring a future participle. It is formed by adding to the verb root the suffixes: -tabba, -(y)ya, -anīya or -īya. These endings are them declined. See here for more detail on FPP derivation.

The sense of the future passive participle has nothing to do with future tense though, but rather it has the meaning of imperative or optative: ‘this must be done,’ ‘this should be done,’ ‘this ought to be done,’ also ‘this can/could be done ‘. As well as just  'to be done'.  This is noticeably different from English. 

Like past participles they can act as:

• adjectives (especially when the suffix -aniya is used)
• finite verbs (especially when the suffix -tabba or -(y)ya is used), or
• as nouns (in neuter only).

As adjectives they must agree in number, gender and case with their subject.
The agent, if stated will be in either instrumental or sometimes genitive.
Here are a couple of examples:

kattabbaṃ	kusalaṃ	bahuṃ
nom	nom	nom
n	n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl
(fpp. of karoti)
fit to be done.	good action.	much many
plentiful good action should be done.

bhikkhunā	kammaṃ	kātabbaṃ	hoti
inst/abl	nom/acc	nom/acc	pres, act
m	n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
		fpp	3rd pers
a monk	work, action	ought to be done	is
the work ought to be done by the monk
the monk has some work to do...

maggo	kho	me	gantabbo	bhavissati
nom	indec	instr	nom	fut, act
m		m	m
sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl
		pn-1st	fpp	3rd pers
(the) road	indeed	by me, mine	should be gone	will be
the road indeed will have to be gone (travelled) by me

gamanīyo	samparāyo	kattabbaṃ	kusalaṃ	caritabbaṃ	brahmacariyaṃ
nom	nom	nom	nom	nom	nom
m	m	n	n	n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
fpp		fpp		fpp
to be gone	future state	fit to be done	good action	should be walked	chaste life
next life (is) to be gone		beneficial action (is) to be done		the chaste life (is) to be walked

Future passive participles are, I think, generally perfect in aspect. However, forms of ‘√as’ (atthi) with a future passive participle the normal perfect aspect is modified to be continuous (imperfect).

Present participles on passive stems

A present participle passive can be formed in Pali by adding the suffix -māna to the passive indicative stem (-[i]yamāna) and declining as a noun in -a.
There is often a problem translating the present passive of Pali because in English the passive is always expressed by a past participle. Usually the simplest solution is to render the participles as English present participles in active voice.

dissamānena	kāyena	dhammaṃ	desesi	adissamānena	kāyena	dhammaṃ	desesi
inst	inst	acc	aor,act	inst	inst	acc	aor,act
m	m	m		m	m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
pres part, pass			3rd pers				3rd pers
having appeared	by body	dhamma	he teaches	having not appeared	by body	dhamma	he teaches
he teaches the dhamma, with the body appearing				he teaches the dhamma, with the body not appearing

Next we'll continue with Pali participles in active voice.