Transgressive (linguistics)
In linguistic morphology, a transgressive is a special form of verb. It expresses a concurrently proceeding or following action. It is considered to be a kind of infinitive, or participle. It is often used in Balto-Slavic languages. Syntactically it functions as an adverbial.
Slavic languages
Czech
The form of the Czech transgressive is distinctive within the Slavic linguistic family and among converbs in general. Nowadays it is used only occasionally for artistic purposes and in set phrases and idioms. Transgressives were still used quite widely in the literary language at the beginning of the 20th century. For example, Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk contains many of them.The Czech language recognizes present and past transgressives. The present transgressive can express present or future action depending on the aspect of the verb from which it is derived.
Examples
Usednuvši u okna, začala plakat. – past transgressiveDěti, vidouce babičku, vyběhly ven. – present transgressivePořídí si psa, aby byla, přijdouc domů, přivítána. – future transgressiveNedbaje svého zdraví, onemocněl. – transgressive used as a prepositionBůh – takříkajíc Pánu našemu. – transgressive used as an adverbSlovak
In Slovak, only the present transgressive form exists, and it does not inflect for gender or number.Polish
In Polish, transgressives are usually called "adverbial participles" and do not inflect for gender or number. There are two kinds of such participles: anterior and contemporary. The anterior participle expresses an event earlier than the event described by the main clause, while the contemporary adverbial participle expresses an event simultaneous with the event described by the main clause. Nowadays, especially the anterior participle is unused in the spoken language and rare in the written language.The contemporary adverbial participle can be derived by adding the ending -c to the third-person plural present form of an imperfective verb :jeść "to eat " > 3pl jedzą " are eating" > jedząc " eating"nieść "to carry " > 3pl niosą " are carrying" > niosąc " carrying"czytać "to read " > 3pl czytają " are reading" > czytając " reading"kupować "to buy " > 3pl kupują " are buying" > kupując " buying"
The verb być "to be" is the only exception – its contemporary adverbial participle is będąc and corresponds to its future form będą " will be" rather than to its present form są " are".
The anterior adverbial participle can be derived by replacing of the ending -ł in the third-person singular masculine past form of a perfective verb with the suffix -wszy or -łszy :zjeść "to eat " > zjadł " ate" > zjadłszy "having eaten"przynieść "to bring " > przyniósł " brought" > przyniósłszy "having brought"przeczytać "to read " > przeczytał " read" > przeczytawszy "having read"kupić "to buy " > kupił " bought" > kupiwszy "having bought"pchnąć "to push " > pchnął " pushed" > pchnąwszy "having pushed"
Serbo-Croatian
In all varieties of Serbo-Croatian, the transgressive forms are called "verbal adverbs". They are common in literature and other written works, while in spoken language simple present or past tense constructions are usually used instead. They are formed similarly to the Czech and Polish transgressives. Examples are given in Gaj's Latin alphabet and Ijekavian pronunciation.Examples
The present verbal adverb is formed by adding the ending -ći to the third-person plural present form of an imperfective verb:pjevati "to sing" > 3pl pjevaju " sing/are singing" > pjevajući " singing"ljubiti "to kiss" > 3pl ljube " kiss/are kissing" > ljubeći " kissing"The past verbal adverb is formed by adding the ending -vši to the infinitive stem of a perfective verb:otpjevati "to sing" > otpjeva- infinitive stem > otpjevavši "having sung"poljubiti "to kiss" > poljubi- infinitive stem > poljubivši "having kissed"
Some perfective verbs have irregular past verbal adverbs, for example doći "to come > došavši "having come".
The auxiliary verbs can be both perfective and imperfective. The verb biti "to be" has the present verbal adverb budući and the past verbal adverb bivši, and the verb htjeti "to want" has the present verbal adverb htijući or hoteći and the past verbal adverb htjevši or hotjevši.
The past verbal adverb can also be used to describe a way how something was done, for example for the verb baciti "to throw", the past verbal form bacivši can mean "by throwing", for example počinio je samoubojstvo bacivši se sa zgrade "he committed suicide by throwing himself off the building".
Russian
In Russian, the transgressive is considered a participial form, which functions adverbially. It is common in written and spoken language. It indicates a secondary action, performed concurrently with the primary action. Syntactically the transgressive is felt as relating to the manner of the primary action, as adverbs of manner do.Formation of the transgressives bears similarities to the transgressives of other Slavic languages.
The transgressive can be formed from a perfective or an imperfective infinitive verb lemma. The imperfective transgressive can be in the present or past tense. The perfective transgressive is in the past. The transgressive has no other inflection.
Examples
- Imperfective lemma прыгать : прыгая — 'while jumping', прыгав/прыгавши — 'while jumping '.
- Perfective lemma прыгнуть : прыгнув/прыгнувши — 'having jumped'
- Lemma быть : будучи — ' being', бывши — 'having been', etc.
periphrastic passive transgressives, though such usage is more rare.
Ukrainian
Like all verb forms, the transgressive in Ukrainian has an aspect category: perfective and imperfective.Perfective past tense transgressives express an additional action that occurred before or simultaneously with the main action. For example: Закінчивши лекцію, викладач пішов на перерву.
Imperfective present tense transgressives denote an additional action that occurs simultaneously with the main action : Сніг іде і, сяйво розсіваючи бліде, зволожує афіші і обличчя. The snow is both falling and spreading pale light at the same time.
Imperfective past tense transgressives express an additional action that occurred in the past simultaneously with the main action : Слухавши вірші про кохання, він завжди згадував її.
Baltic languages
Lithuanian and Latvian have multiple transgressive forms most of which are used very actively in all types of modern speech.Lithuanian
Lithuanian has the following transgressive forms:The gerund
The gerund, used with verbs in all tenses to render an action done by the sentence subject simultaneously with the action of the main verb:Examples
Dainuodamas jis nieko negirdi. – While singing, he doesn't hear anything.Rašydama laišką, ji visiškai pamiršo verdančią sriubą. – While writing a letter, she totally forgot about the boiling soup.The gerund is formed by removing the infinitive ending "-ti" and adding the suffix "-dam-", as well as endings marking gender and number:
- m.sg. -damas, refl. -damasis
- f.sg. -dama, refl. -damasi
- m.pl. -dami, refl. -damiesi
- f.pl. -damos, refl. ''-damosi''
Adverbial participles
Two adverbial participles out of four, used with verbs in all tenses to render an action of which the sentence subject is not the agent and which takes place simultaneously with the action of the main verb or before it :Examples
Važiuojant keliu netikėtai iššoko stirna. – While driving on the road, a roe suddenly jumped over.Premijos bus išmokėtos tik sėkmingai įvykdžius projektą. – Bonuses will be paid out only having successfully carried out the project.The adverbial participles are not conjugated and are formed by removing the ending of the respective tense and adding the suffix "-ant" or "-us" :
- present simple: -ant, refl. -antis
- past simple: -us, refl. ''-usis''
Latvian
Latvian has the following transgressive forms:The "-dams" participle
The "-dams" participle, used with verbs in all tenses to render an action done by the sentence subject simultaneously with the action of the main verb:Examples
Dziedādams viņš neko nedzird. – While singing, he doesn't hear anything.Rakstīdama vēstuli, viņa pavisam aizmirsa par verdošu zupu. – While writing a letter, she totally forgot about the boiling soup.The "-dams" participle is formed by removing the infinitive ending "-t" and adding the suffix "-dam-", as well as endings marking gender and number:
- m.sg. -dams, refl. -damies
- f.sg. -dama, refl. -damās
- m.pl. -dami, refl. -damies
- f.pl. -damas, refl. ''-damās''
The "-ot" participle
The "-ot" participle, used with verbs in all tenses to render an action which takes place simultaneously with the action of the main verb. Contrary to the similar form in Lithuanian, "-ot" participle can be used for secondary actions performed by the sentence subject as well :Examples
Dziedot viņš neko nedzird. – While singing, he doesn't hear anything.Braucot pa ceļu, pēkšņi izlēca stirna. – While driving on the road, a roe suddenly jumped over..The adverbial participles are not conjugated and are formed by taking the stem of the present tense and adding the suffix "-ot" or "-oties".
Other
Hungarian
In Hungarian, much like in Polish, transgressives are usually called "adverbial participles".It is a group within the category of nonfinite verbs that do not show person.
It is defined as an igenév that functions with adverbal characteristics.
They are formed by adding either -va/-ve or -ván/-vén suffixes to the singular, third person verb.
These two pairs distinguish two groups of these participles respectively.
Adverbial participles can either be:
- Imperfect: fut – futva
- Perfect: kilép – kilépvén
Examples
- cipel "to carry" > cipelve " carrying"
- olvas "to read" > olvasva " reading"
- visel "to wear" > viselvén "having worn"
- megvesz "to buy" > megvéve " buying"
For example: A könyvek fel lettek cipelve. As opposed to: A könyveket cipelve beütöttem a karom.