The Objective Participial Construction.

The Objective Participial Construction is a construction in which the participle is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the objective case.

In the next berth she could hear her stepmother breathing heavily. (Hardy)

The participle breathing is in predicate relation to the noun stepmother, which denotes the doer of the action expressed by the participle.

In the Objective Participial Construction Participle 1 Indefinite Active or Participle II is used. In the sentence this construction has the function of a complex object. It usually corresponds to a subordinate object clause in Russian.

The Objective Participial Construction may be found:

(a) after verbs denoting sense perception, such as to see, to hear, to feel, to find, etc.

Then he looked out of the window and saw clouds gathering. (Dreiser)

She could feel her hands trembling exceedingly. (Hardy)

She found him waiting for her at her journey's end... (Dickens)

(b) after some verbs of mental activity, such as to consider, to understand.

I consider myself engaged to Herr Klesmer. (Eliot)

(c) after verbs denoting wish, such as to want, to wish, to desire. In this case only Participle II is used.

The governor wants it done quick. (Bennett)

(d) after the verbs to have and to get; after these verbs only Participle II is used.

In this case the Objective Participial Construction shows that the action expressed by the participle is performed at the request of the person denoted by the subject of the sentence. Thus I had the piano tuned means ‘I made someone tune the piano’.

I had my coat altered.

Occasionally the meaning of the construction is different: it may show that the person denoted by the subject of the sentence experiences the action expressed by the participle.

The wounded man had his leg amputated.

The Subjective Participial Construction.

The Subjective Participial Construction is a construction in which the participle (mostly Participle I) is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case, which is the subject of the sentence.

The peculiarity of this construction is that it does not serve as one part of the sentence: one of its component parts has the function of the subject, the other forms part of a compound verbal predicate.

They were heard talking together... (Collins)

This construction is chiefly used after verbs of sense perception.

The horse was seen descending the hill. (Hardy)

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