The Participle of Latin and Albanian (A Comparative Outlook)

Abstract

This article points out the characteristics of the Latin participle in comparison with the Albanian participle, a comparison which is viewed from a morphological and syntactic perspective. In both languages the participle has a double nature, that of an adjective and of a verb. Unlike Albanian, the Latin participle has two voices: the active and the passive. The active voice has two tenses: the present and the future, whereas the passive has only the perfect tense. The participle is the only non-finite form, which is formed in a syntactic way in both languages, with the relevant suffixes. Albanian has only one participle, which appears in different forms, expresses a completed action and usually has a passive meaning. With the help of the front connective article it becomes an adjective and, as such, it takes the grammatical categories of gender, number and case, following the same pattern as the Latin participle. The Latin participle is often used to show secondary circumstances during which or because of which the action in the main clause occurs. In this case, the participle replaces a subordinate clause that can express time, condition, cause, purpose, or manner. In Albanian these functions are expressed by the finite forms of the verb, which are part of the subordinate clauses of time, cause, etc. When it comes to the syntactic functions of the Albanian participle, we can say that it is used as: an attribute of a noun, separate attribute of the subject or another part of the sentence, predicative complement of the subject and the object. Though seldom, the participle has also temporal and causal functions.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p637