The official name for this form is past participle or in German Partizip 2 (Partizip II). But those are based on Latin and they’re not really intuitive. So I decided to use the name “ge-form” on this site, because even though not all verbs get a “ge-“, it is a key feature of this form.
The ge-form is one of the most important things because not only do we need it to talk about the past – we also need it for passive voice and we can use it as an adjective or even a noun.
It’s one of the first grammar things I look up when checking out a new language and the earlier you get used to it, the better.
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Do you have anything about an „accusative absolute“ past participle construction? E.g this from a book: Treibhäuser überzogen die Hügel, die Scheiben weiß gekalkt gegen die Sonne. I figure gekalkt is a participle here, not showing any signs of agreement with Scheiben, which in any case has no grammatical role in the main clause…
I don’t have anything specifically about this, unfortunately.
You’re on the right track though. It is a participle (as a form) and it’s kind of a passive, with a missig “to be”.
Someone chalked the window panes white and that’s how they are.
English has the same phrasing I believe.
– He was resting, his back leaned against the wall.
Yes, English does have this kind of structure. The unexpected part here, for me, is that there‘s no ending on gekalkt. Maybe that’s why you feel there’s a missing auxiliary verb (which would show as acc plural — assuming that’s what Scheiben is?). In Latin, the participle and noun would be ablative (the „ablative absolute“). In English one uses either nom or acc, but obviously we don‘t show agreement.
You’re spot on, there IS a missing auxiliary (“sein”).
The adjective is used “predicatively”, not “attributively” and only the latter get endings in German.