At 11:47 25.01.1999 -0800, Michael Kischner wrote:

>Would everyone agree that, when considering single-word modifiers of
>nouns, we may reasonably distinguish  between adjectives and participles
>on one hand and nouns and gerunds on the other?

I think before the main point can be discussed, we should first clear up a
minor point about 'hungry and thirsty' as compared to 'hard, stale'.

While in 'hard, stale bread' the adjectives are definitely noun attributes
(pre-modifiers, if you prefer), in

  'Hungry and thirsty, the campers devoured the meal'

the adjectives have nothing to do with modifying. 'Hungry and thirsty' is a
verbless sentence (being ...). The same _seems_ true for 'angry and
insulted' ('angry and insulted, she left the room'). But it is not.

The participle 'insulted' is a (very short) participle _sentence_, not just
a participle used on its own. A longer sentence might be something like
'insulted by three of her four students' or some such. So 'angry and
insulted' are not a chain consisting of adjective and participle, but a
chain whose two links are a verbless sentence and a participle sentence
(regardless of what we 'see').

What is more - apart from adjectives or participle (sentences) you also
find nouns or noun groups in the same position: 'An email freak, he never
left the house without his computer.' Again, a verbless sentence when
looked at more closely (being ...).

This, too, could be combined into a chain by connecting it with an ing-form
sentence: 'Limping like hell  and an email freak, he got himself a palmtop.'


So it seems there are uses where it may be helpful to treat adjectives and
participles together, but there will be others, where participles function
as verbal parts in participle sentences, where this would be misleading.
This is probably where they convey that 'verby feeling' that Michael mentions.



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