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First of all, the 'first link' I mention in the title is this:

How to tell a participle from an adjective?

and despite being 5 years old (irrelevant), it is the closest I could find to helping with my question.

I know in English, participles/verb forms are used as; adjectives, to create a verb tense (not looking down this rabbit hole), or a passive voice (doesn't seem relevant here), but here it seems just as an adjective (assuming these three uses are the same uses in Russian).

I could not find a suitable adjective for 'allotted', and all attempts led me to (mostly) PPP participles (In English, despite originating(?) from a verb, this seems a legitimate adjective, both attributively and predicatively). This led me to the above link, and the lower one.

It all started with my attempts at translating this English sentence to Russian:

I am sitting at my desk, and while observing my allotted time pass, realize that I do not know a sufficient number of Russian words to describe my day.

and did so, with marginal success to,

Я сижу́ за свои́м столо́м, и (наблюда́я и́ли смотря́)[present imperfective adverbial/gerund], как проходи́ть моё (вы́деленное и́ли отведённое)[past passive perfective participle] вре́мя, понима́ю что не зна́ю доста́точное коли́чество сло́в что́бы опи́сать мой день.

The answers in the link above mention a distinction by either time,

A participle is a form of a verb that describes change over time. An adjective describes a more permanent attribute.

or.... 'manifestation of change',

As far as I know, the participles mean "the ones which are being changed" (your example #1), and the adjectives mean "the ones that can be changed"

though the latter person qualifies this only for the specific examples in that link.

These distinctions do not (seemingly) apply here... 'allotted' definitely won't change over time.

Is there any concern over using a PPP as an adjective if it doesn't fit the above two qualifications? Would there then be no necessary distinction, and thought, over using PPPs if one cannot find a good adjective?

Further looking around to help find the difference brought up this link, use of passive past participle, but problems with the example, as well as lack of distinction between how it was used (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9 says it is both an adjective and a PPP participle) wasn't enough for me to understand.

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Я сижу́ за свои́м столо́м, и (наблюда́я и́ли смотря́)[present imperfective adverbial/gerund], как проходи́ть моё (вы́деленное и́ли отведённое)[past passive perfective participle] вре́мя, понима́ю что не зна́ю доста́точное коли́чество сло́в что́бы опи́сать мой день.

I think you are using отведенное here correctly.

My translation:

Я сижу за своим столом и, замечая как проходит отведенное мне время, понимаю, что мне не хватает словарного запаса, чтобы описать мой день.

отведенное мне as in "given to me, allocated to me". In Russian you can say отведенное время, but it will still mean отведенное мне/ему/нам/someone время.

Hope this helps.

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  • was wondering why you put the comma after 'and'.... just style (as in where you pause)? Also, a little weird for me to see хвата́ть (verb) when I think of an adjective...
    – nate
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 15:01
  • 1
    @nate 1. Not just style, there are certain punctuation rules in Russian. This clause is an example of a деепричастный оборот and it must be enclosed in commas. 2. That's because you think in English )) Other languages have their own ways of expressing the same idea. Btw, хватать here is in its suffice meaning, not grab, snatch, etc.
    – tum_
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 9:51
  • Thank you for the link! Great examples, and such imagery - По небу ползли тяжёлые серые тучи, скрывая проглядывающее время от времени солнце. I note that I could probably have used "a" instead :) Прочитайте правило, а разобравшись в нем, выполните упражнение. but I am not asking about the "adversative conjunctive" - russian.stackexchange.com/questions/19899/…
    – nate
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 18:22
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Is there any concern over using a PPP as an adjective if it doesn't fit the above two qualifications?

'Allotted' does describe a change: the change between you not having an allotted time and you having one. So it does fit the definition in the link.

Would there then be no necessary distinction, and thought, over using PPPs if one cannot find a good adjective?

Adjectives and participles are usually syntactically interchangeable. Except for government patterns: моё отведённое вре́мя sounds not quite correct while моё свобо́дное вре́мя is okay. "отведённое мне вре́мя" is how I would put it which gives away a PPP: Е́сли у меня́ есть отведённое вре́мя, зна́чит, кто-то отвёл мне э́то вре́мя (If I have an allotted time, then someone must have allotted this time to me).

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  • Время, выделенное / отведенное мною для занятий .I don't see any crime.
    – V.V.
    Commented Apr 18, 2020 at 14:35
  • @V.V. Neither do I. What's your point?
    – Sergey Slepov
    Commented Apr 18, 2020 at 16:06
  • 'Someone' could be me, is that what you meant? "Время, отведенное мне мной для занятий". No crime. :)
    – Sergey Slepov
    Commented Apr 18, 2020 at 16:08
  • Yes, my upvote.
    – V.V.
    Commented Apr 18, 2020 at 18:16
  • I've noticed most books predominantly talk about origin & formation of these 'animals', eg manner adverbs, participles, yet lack in explaining why their function distinguishes them from other 'zoo animals', eg: participles: 'A participle is a word which is partly a verb and partly an adjective.' Now, I understand this sentence - it also has a verb trait b/c it represents a state achieved by an action, 'to alot' - 'change over time', despite this action having Nothing to do with the sentence. My problem has, seemingly, always been expecting this change to be in the sentence's own context.
    – nate
    Commented Apr 19, 2020 at 16:03

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