Grammar question: Past participles used as adjectives?

In 1 and 2, “shown” and “expected” are past participles in reduced clauses.
1’ The image (that is) shown on the home page is wrong.
2’ When I don’t get the thing (that is) expected, I usually get angry.

In 3, “confounded” is a past participle used as an adjective. (But it’s a weird sentence, I don’t know if an inanimate object like a Ferris wheel can be confounded)

1c is wrong because it has two tensed verbs in the same clause. The first verb has to be either in a dependent clause (as in 1a), or it has to be a participle (as in 1b).

We’ve talked about this before:
http://www.fluther.com/110933/active-or-passive-or-past-participle-adjective/
http://www.fluther.com/90503/what-does-this-sentence-mean/

Language is very fluid, and rules are never very strictly followed. In many cases, things are ‘implied’.

Your second and third sentences are strangely worded, so I’ll focus on the first, which isn’t.

There is an implied ‘to be’ in that sentence. The image that is shown is wrong. (Actually, that grates me a little. I would prefer if it said ‘incorrect’.)

Since that would be clunky, and the point gets across just fine without it, it’s fine to leave it off.

Instead of “doubt”, use “question”. “I have a question about the usage of past participles when used as adjectives.”

@Seek_Kolinahr : I was typing it continuously and forgot to put the word “I’ in my first sentence. I think all of the three sentences are constructed correctly. The third sentence in which I didn’t mention the whole sentence. The full version is like: “They were standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus. They looked to the east and saw an illuminated light coming out from the dark tunnel and on the other side, they saw a series of confounded Ferris wheels moving towards nothing. You know it ended so quickly!”

@morphail : Thanks for the link. Yes, it should be “question” instead doubt. Instead of using shown, if “showing” (which is present participle of “shown”) is used, will that be correct?

See below:

The image showing on the home page is wrong. I think it’s also correct.

I don’t know what a confounded Ferris wheel is supposed to be, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of the use of the word.

And the second sentence, while technically correct, would never be spoken as written by a native English speaker.

@Seek_Kolinahr : Perhaps, it refers to the first meaning of the word.

@misty123
“The image showing on the home page is wrong.”

My feeling is that “appearing” is better here. I don’t think this is a standard usage of “show” as an intransitive verb. Intransitive “show” means “show up, appear” of people – as in “my friend didn’t show last night.”

“The image shown on the home page is wrong.”
This is fine, because this use of “show” is transitive.

“confounded” means “surprised”, “confused”. But how can a Ferris wheel be confused??

@Seek_Kolinahr “When don’t get the expected thing, I usually get angry” sounds fine to this native English speaker.

@morphail :Maybe the Ferris wheel surprised the person who was standing at the bus stop.

@morphail In what context would that ever be the natural choice of words?

@misty123 Then the person would be confounded, not the Ferris wheel.
Also, Ferris wheels don’t move towards things. They turn or rotate, but they don’t change their location.

@Seek_Kolinahr If I’m expecting a thing and I get something else, in other words if I don’t get the expected thing, I usually get angry. I wouldn’t write it formally, but I can imagine it in conversation.

If I don’t get what I want, I usually get angry.

If I don’t get what I ordered, I usually get angry.

If I don’t get what I expect, I usually get angry.

If I don’t get (the expected thing), I usually get angry.

Yeah. A parenthetical phrase us the only way that sentence, in that exact wording, makes sense to me.

@Seek_Kolinahr I’m not sure what parentheses have to do with it. If a thing is expected, it’s an expected thing. Simple! Clearly we have different dialects.

@morphail It should be “rotate’, not “move”. Confusing one!

This is how I would change the sentence so it makes sense:
“And suddenly, they saw a series of confounding Ferris wheels, rotating endlessly.”

@morphail Does “confounding” imply “surprising”?

Also, it’s present participle of “confound”.

I think so? The OED says “To throw into confusion of mind or feelings; so to surprise and confuse (a person) that he loses for the moment his presence of mind, and discernment what to do.”

It sounds poetic in this context. If you want a more conversational tone, how about:
“And suddenly, they were surprised to see a series of Ferris wheels”

As for why “confounding” is correct here and “confounded” isn’t: it might help to think of the ”-ing” participle as active, and the ”-ed” participle as passive. If something is surprising, it surprises me. But if something is surprised, then I surprise it. Obviously, I cannot surprise an inanimate object.

This also works: And suddenly, they were confounded by a series of Ferris wheels. I would use passive voice and not replace the original word “confounded”. Maybe the example I quoted seems poetic.

As for why “confounding” is correct here and “confounded” isn’t: it might help to think of the ”-ing” participle as active, and the ”-ed” participle as passive. If something is surprising, it surprises me. But if something is surprised, then I surprise it. Obviously, I cannot surprise an inanimate object.

Yes, I agree.

“Confounded” isn’t literal here. It’s an old expression, a substitute for the much stronger “damned,” which was not used in polite society. Don’t bother to think of it as passive at all. It’s just a pejorative, a stand-in for a bad word.

People used to say things like “Confound it, I can’t find my slippers” and “This confounded car won’t start.” Quaint, I know, but people used to be a bit more circumspect when it came to strong language. In fact, there are still plenty of people (I know some of them, and so do you) who don’t use “swear words” and have a number of innocuous substitutes in their active vocabularies.

——

[Edited to add] Even Dictionary.com has “damned” as the second meaning of confounded.

Hmm. I just searched Google on the phrase “they saw a series of confounded Ferris wheels,” wondering if it came from some older literary work, and found this:

http://www.englishforums.com/English/PastParticiplesAdjectives/bzckzb/post.htm

@misty123, are you reposting questions from another site? or is someone reposting yours?

I also found this:

http://q-and-a.alltop.com/

Apparently this site mirrors Fluther users’ questions (and others’), whether we like it or not.

@Jeruba‘s got a point…“confounded” could be a synonym for “damn”. Who wrote it?

@Jeruba : I re-posted the same question from that site in order to know the correct usage of “confound”. I looked it up here before posting the question as it is. Per the dictionary, its first meaning is : to surprise and confuse (someone or something). Also, it’s used as an interjection to express anger or annoyance Confound it! I can’t find my keys! This meaning is the same as “damn”.

I think out of these two meanings the first meaning is applicable in the above context. The problem I had was whether it’s an adjective or verb.

As @morphail stated earlier, it could be used as an adjective. I think the context used by the OP(of that site) is fictional or imaginary.

I would use “confounding” instead “confounded”.

See the below example where either of the cases works.

Should you have a question relating/related to the content of the Code of Conduct, please contact XYZ in the Legal department.

But, in the OP’s context only “confounding” works.

What do you say?

The usage of “confounded” in the sense of “damned” is very familiar to me and would, I think, be readily understood in this context by anyone who’s used to reading a slightly older style of English. To me there’s no doubt at all what meaning is intended, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Ferris wheels’ being either confused or confusing. (And yes, of course it’s an adjective.) But I’m not interested in arguing the point. Thanks for entertaining my suggestion.

One further thought: note that the online dictionary you cited, like the one I cited, as well as the first two I consulted of the many physical dictionaries I have on hand, has a separate entry for “confounded.” This is because the past participle in its adjectival use has a sufficiently distinct meaning that cannot simply be derived from the infinitive.

The OED’s oldest citation in the sense of execrating something objectionable is 1652.

Yes, “confounded” has a separate entry in dictionaries. It basically explains the meaning you cited in earlier responses. It can also be used as an idiom.

Compare:

He was very confounded – meaning “annoyed”.
He was confounded by her strange behavior – passive voice sentence.
The confounded behavior of her made me angry – past participle used as an adjective.