Obviously I've hit my head...

adering · **Posted:** Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:10 pm

In the WSJ today is the story about a book written entirely without verbs.Here's a passage from the book as quoted in that article:>>"In that carriage, between the grumpy woman oozing vulgarity and the similarly asinine creature with her, the progenitor and her eczematous brat, the purple-faced fatso, the half-bald guy like a vegetarian may-bug, the verbose matinee idol and the crazy witch, no room for me."<<Isn't "oozing" a verb? Or is it one of those fiddly bits that I never stayed awake for?

majorbabs · **Posted:** Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:34 pm

And who wants to read such a book? Or maybe they'd just written too many heds with implied verbs, like the "is" is implied in, "Tournament Time Wild In French Quarter".[ July 16, 2004: Message edited by: majorbabs ]

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:36 pm

As used there, it's a participle, not a verb. A book without verbs? What a novel idea.

mdid · **Joined:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:01 am **Posts:** 27

Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?Perhaps I'm giving to much attention to the nonsense in the book, but maybe "oozing" is describing the vulgarity. Anyway, I doubt the book has much of a plot ...

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:24 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by mdid:
Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?<hr></blockquote>"She was oozing vulgarity" is sentence. "She oozing vulgarity" is not, because it lacks a verb.

ramblerdan · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:12 pm

>Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?It's verb-ey, but not a verb. Neither fish nor fowl, a participle is, as the dictionary puts it, "a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective." Latin distinguishes between the gerund, a verbal noun, and the gerundive, a verbal adjective, though I'm not certain whether Mrs. Thistlebottom draws that line for English.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:46 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by ramblerdan:
>Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?It's verb-ey, but not a verb. Neither fish nor fowl, a participle is, as the dictionary puts it, "a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective." Latin distinguishes between the gerund, a verbal noun, and the gerundive, a verbal adjective, though I'm not certain whether Mrs. Thistlebottom draws that line for English.<hr></blockquote>So is "gerundive" just a fancy word for "participle"?

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:09 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by ADKbrown:
So is "gerundive" just a fancy word for "participle"?<hr></blockquote>In Latin, it's the future passive participle, freqently used in passive periphrastic conjugations.D.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:46 am

I SO wanted to know that!

majorbabs · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:27 am

You have to admit, this is one of the few places you could have this kind of discussion with people who actually care what the answer is. Thanks, blanp.

Jamal · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:18 pm

The passage alone has piqued my curiousity about the book. What's it called? And who wrote it?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:51 pm

"Le Train de Nulle Part," or "The Train to Nowhere," by Michel Dansel, according to the Journal. Amazon.fr lists him as Michel Thayer.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:57 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by mdid:
Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?<hr></blockquote>
The American HeritageÂ® Book of English Usage. provides more than you ever wanted to know in this entry.

Le Petomane · **Posted:** Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:01 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by mdid:
Isn't a participle merely a type of verb?<hr></blockquote>Present participles can function as other parts of speech. When they function as substantives, they are called gerunds. In the "sentence" being discussed, oozing vulgarity functions as an adjective modifying woman. Even when they function as other parts of speech, participles retain enough of their verbal nature that they can still have objects (direct or indirect -- in this case vulgarity) or be modified by adverbs.

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