Past participle active
The past participle active (PPA) is a verbal adjective that expresses a past and therefore premature action in relation to the parent sentence . It is not to be confused with the present active participle (PPA) and the perfect passive participle (PPP).
In Latin there is no such form. However, with Deponentien , that is, with verbs that are formed passively but have an active meaning, e.g. B. hortatus - the one who has admonished ; the PPP has the corresponding grammatical function.
The Ancient Greek knows a participle aorist active (the aorist in Greek is more or less the Latin perfect) and a past participle active (the Greek perfect expresses a completed action in the past, the results in the presence of stops). Examples:
- Participle Aorist Active: παιδεύσας, -σασα, παιδεῦσαν der, die, that (once) educated; the one who educated etc.
- Past participle active: πεπαιδευκώς, -κυῖα, -κός der, die, that has raised
The Slavic languages also know the perfect active participle. The actual active participle of Slavic (including originally Russian ) is the participle in -l (-л) , from which today's preterital forms of Russian originate, for example: я сказал "I said", прочитал "I have (through ) read ". In today's Russian, the past participle is formed with -в : having said Сказав , having read Прочитав . The l-participle of verbs of movement is used in Slavonic when the past participle is passive in German , although an active action is being expressed, e.g. B. Slovenian prispela pisma "arrived letters", odrasel "grown up". The perfect active participle is clearly distinguished from the perfect passive participle: padli vojaki (perfect active participle) "fallen soldiers" - ubiti vojaki (perfect passive participle) "killed soldiers".
In German , the grammatical form of the past participle does not exist.
The function of a past participle active in German for transitive verbs can only be reproduced using multi-part forms, namely through the past participle passive in combination with a present active participle of the corresponding auxiliary verb.
Example: Having revised the article , the Wikipedian turned to other activities.
If this way of expression is already unusual, then one finally reaches the limits of the German language with verbs whose perfect tense is formed with a form of "sein". Here, analogous to the above, Example, actually the present participle active of the auxiliary verb sein are formed. But since this form is not used in German (as in Latin) outside of philosophical texts, it falls i. d. R. away.
Example: Going for a walk (having been) returned home.
The German participle perfect passive can have active meaning in the unaccusative verbs , a subgroup of the intransitive verbs . There is usually an adjective used: the recently deceased Mr. K., everyone therefore spilled cur ...
Replacement and paraphrase options in German
Participles are rarely used in German. If, for example, when translating from a foreign language, you are faced with the problem of a participle - e.g. B. πεπαιδευκώς - to have to transfer, there are the following options:
- Literal translation: as having been educated
- Subordination : because / there / although / after / as ... he raised,
- Relative clause : the one who educated
- Assignment: he educated and ...
- Noun : the (former) educator
The decision for one of these options must be made based on the context .