The Roles of Past Participles in Nominal Modification

Abstract

This study explores the roles of past participles in nominal modification within the perspectives of functional grammar, focusing on their usage in an accounting textbook. Past participles frequently appear in nominal groups, functioning as epithets, classifiers, or qualifiers, depending on their role in describing or categorizing the noun. Using a qualitative approach, this research analyzes data extracted from the textbook to classify past participles based on their functions and the frequency of usage in the text. Based on the data reveal that past participles predominantly function as qualifiers, providing detailed, context-specific information about the noun in post-modification. Classifiers are moderately frequent, categorizing nouns into specific technical subsets, while epithets are the least common, offering subjective or evaluative descriptions. The key finding in this study demonstrates that the types of process associated with past participle provide effective means of distinguishing its functional role in nominal modification. Past participles derived from mental processes tend to function as epithets, while those from material processes serve as both classifiers and qualifiers.