Taxic meanings of the French past participle

Abstract

The study aims to identify the taxic meanings realized by French past participles. The article examines the correlations between tense forms and participles as means of expressing simultaneity, succession, and precedence. The research is conducted using data from an online French language corpus. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the first-ever systematization of the taxic meanings of non-finite verb forms in the French language. By representing the internal time of a process at its point of completion, the past participle fulfills the functions of verb forms within a sentence. Its restrictive aspectual value marginalizes the participle within the French verbal system as the only form that lacks compound variants and agrees in gender and number with the noun phrase to which it is attached. However, it is precisely this marginality that places the form at the center of the system: based on the past participle, the French language has constructed a system of compound and double-compound forms, as well as the primary structure of the passive voice. The study reveals that the past participle realizes taxic meanings of simultaneity and precedence, while not excluding the possibility of the absence of a specific value. The past participle is undeniably the most productive form in the French verbal system.

Research materials

1. Национальный корпус русского языка. https://ruscorpora.ru/

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Author information

About this article

Publication history

• Received: January 15, 2026.
• Published: March 5, 2026.

Keywords

• причастие прошедшего времени
• таксисные значения
• французский язык
• значения одновременности
• значение предшествования
• значение следования
• past participle
• taxic meanings
• French language
• simultaneity
• precedence
• succession

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© 2026 The Author(s)
© 2026 Gramota Publishing, LLC

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)