Higher Lessons in English: A work on English grammar and composition · Chapter 48Verbs As Adjectives and As Nouns—Participles
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+Introductory Hints.+—Corn grows; Corn growing. Here growing differs from grows in lacking the power to assert. Growing is a form of the verb that cannot, like grows, make a complete predicate because it only assumes or implies that the corn does the act. Corn may be called the assumed subject of growing.
Birds, singing, delight us. Here singing does duty (1) as an adjective, describing birds by assuming or implying an act, and (2) as a verb by expressing the act of singing as going on at the time birds delight us.
By singing their songs birds delight us. Here singing has the nature of a verb and that of a noun. As a verb it has an object complement, songs; and as a noun it names the act, and stands as the principal word in a prepositional phrase.
Their singing so sweetly delights us. Here, also, singing has the nature of a verb and that of a noun. As a verb it has an adverb modifier, sweetly, and as a noun it names an act and takes a possessive modifier.
This form of the verb is called the +Participle+ (Lat. pars, a part, and capere, to take) because it partakes of two natures and performs two offices—those of a verb and an adjective, or those of a verb and a noun. (For definition see Lesson 131.)
Singing birds delight us. Here singing has lost its verbal nature, and expresses a permanent quality of birds—telling what kind of birds,—and consequently is a mere adjective. The singing of the birds delights us. Here singing is simply a noun, naming the act and taking adjective modifiers.
There are two kinds of participles; [Footnote: Grammarians are not agreed as to what these words that have the nature of the verb and that of the noun should be called. Some would call the simple forms doing, writing, and injuring, in sentences (1), (6), and (7), Lesson 38, Infinitives. They would also call by the same name such compound forms as being accepted, having been shown, and having said in these expressions: "for the purpose of being accepted;" "is the having been shown over a place;" "I recollect his having said that." But does it not tax even credulity to believe that a simple Anglo-Saxon infinitive in -an, only one form of which followed a preposition, and that always to, could have developed into many compound forms, used in both voices, following almost any preposition, and modified by the and by nouns and pronouns in the possessive? No wonder the grammarian Mason says, "An infinitive in -ing, set down by some as a modification of the simple infinitive in -an or -en, is a perfectly unwarranted invention."
Others call these words modernized forms of the Anglo-Saxon Verbal Nouns in -ung, -ing. But this derivation of them encounters the stubborn fact that those verbal nouns never were compound, and never were or could be followed by objects. These words, on the contrary, are compound, as we have seen, and have objects. That they are from nouns in -ung is otherwise, and almost for the same reasons, as incredible as that they are from infinitives in -an.
Others call these words Gerunds. A gerund in Latin is a simple form of the verb in the active voice, never found in the nominative, and never in the accusative (objective) after a verb. A gerund in Anglo-Saxon is a simple form of the verb in the active voice—the dative case of the infinitive merely—used mainly to indicate purpose, and always preceded by the preposition to. To call these words in question gerunds is to stretch the term gerund immensely beyond its meaning in Anglo-Saxon, and make it cover words which sometimes (1) are highly compounded; sometimes (2) are used in the passive voice; sometimes (3) follow other prepositions than to; sometimes (4) do not follow any preposition; sometimes (5) are objects of verbs; sometimes (6) are subjects of verbs; sometimes (7) are modified by the; sometimes (8) are modified by a noun or pronoun in the possessive; and generally (9) do not indicate purpose. We submit that the extension of a class term so as to include words having these relations that the Anglo-Saxon gerund never had, is not warranted by any precedent except that furnished above in the extension of the term infinitive or of the term verbal noun!
Still others call some of these words Infinitives; some of them Verbal Nouns; and some of them Gerunds.
The forms in question—seeing, having seen, being seen, having been seen, and having been seeing, for instance—are now made from the verb in precisely the same way when partaking the nature of the noun as when partaking the nature of the adjective. What can they possibly be but the forms that all grammarians call participles extended to new uses? If the uses of the original participles have been extended, why may we not carry over the name? The name participle is as true to its etymology when applied to the nounal use of the verb as when applied to the adjectival use. For convenience of classification we call these disputed forms participles, as good grammarians long ago called them and still call them, though some of them may be traced back to the Saxon verbal noun or to the infinitive, and though the Saxon participle was adjectival. The name participle neither confounds terms nor misleads the student. The nounal and the adjectival uses of participial forms we distinguish very sharply.] one sharing the nature of the verb and that of the adjective; the other, the nature of the verb and that of the noun. Participles commonly end in ing, ed, or en.
The participle, like other forms of the verb, may be followed by an object complement or an attribute complement.
Analysis and Parsing.
The +participle+ may be used as an +adjective modifier+.
1. Hearing a step, I turned.
I | turned ===|========= \ | \ hea \ ring | step ————|——— \a
+Explanation+.—The line standing for the participle is broken; one part slants to represent the adjective nature of the participle, and the other is horizontal to represent its verbal nature.
+Oral Analysis+.—The phrase hearing a step is a modifier of the subject; [Footnote: Logically, or in sense, hearing a step modifies the predicate also. I turned when or because I heard a step. See Lesson 79.] the principal word is hearing, which is completed by the noun step; step is modified by a.
+Parsing+.—Hearing is a form of the verb called participle because the act expressed by it is merely assumed, and it shares the nature of an adjective and that of a verb.
2. The fat of the body is fuel laid away for use.
+Explanation+.—The complement is here modified by a participle phrase.
3. The spinal marrow, proceeding from the brain, extends down-ward through the back-bone. 4. Van Twiller sat in a huge chair of solid oak, hewn in the celebrated forest of the Hague.
+Explanation+.—The principal word of a prepositional phrase is here modified by a participle phrase.
5. Lentulus, returning with victorious legions, had amused the populace with the sports of the amphitheater.
The +participle+ may be used as an +attribute complement+.
6. The natives came crowding around.
+Explanation+.—Crowding here completes the predicate came, and belongs to the subject natives. The natives are represented as performing the act of coming and the accompanying act of crowding. The assertive force of the predicate came seems to extend over both verbs. [Footnote: Some grammarians prefer to treat the participle in such constructions as adverbial. But is crowding any more adverbial here than are pale and trembling in "The natives came pale and trembling"?]
7. The city lies sleeping. 8. They stood terrified. 9. The philosopher sat buried in thought.
\and \and \ \….\….\ \ \ \star \ \ \ ving \ \sav \———- \ \ ing \gru \————— \ bbing \——————- | miser | kept \ / \ ======|====================== |
10. The old miser kept grubbing and saving and starving.
The +participle+ may be used as an +objective complement+.
11. He kept me waiting.
+Explanation+.—Waiting completes kept and relates to the object complement me. Kept-waiting expresses the complete act performed upon me. He kept-waiting me=He detained me. The relation of waiting to me may be seen by changing the form of the verb; as, I was kept waiting. See Lesson 31.
12. I found my book growing dull. [Footnote: It will be seen by this and following examples that we extend the application of the term objective complement beyond its primary, or factitive, sense. In "I struck the man dead," the condition expressed by dead is the result of the act expressed by struck. In "I found the man dead," the condition is not the result of the act, and so grammarians say that in this second example dead should be treated simply as an "appositive" adjective modifying man. While dead does not belong to man as expressing the result of the act, it is made to belong to man through the asserting force of the verb, and therefore is not a mere modifier of man. Dead helps found to express the act. Not found, but found-dead tells what was done to the man.
If we put the sentence in the passive form, "The man was found dead," it will be seen that dead is more than a mere modifier; it belongs to man through the assertive force of was found. If dead is here merely an "appositive" adjective, "I found the man dead" must equal "I found the man, who was dead" (or, "and he was dead"). The two sentences obviously are not equal. "I caught him asleep" does not mean, "I caught him, and he was asleep."
If, in the construction discussed above, dead is an objective complement, quiet, stirring, and (to) stir in the following sentences are objective complements:—
I saw the leaves quiet. I saw the leaves stirring. I saw the leaves stir.
The adjective, the participle, and the infinitive do not here seem to differ essentially in office. See Lesson 31 and page 78.]
\grow \ wing \ dull \———————- | I | found / / \ | book =====|============================== | \my
+Explanation+.—The diagram representing the phrase complement is drawn above the complement line, on which it is made to rest by means of a support. All that stands on the complement line is regarded as the complement. Notice that the little mark before the phrase points toward the object complement. The adjective dull completes growing and belongs to book, the assumed subject of growing.
13. He owned himself defeated. 14. No one ever saw fat men heading a riot or herding together in turbulent mobs. 15. I felt my heart beating faster. 16. You may imagine me sitting there. 17. Saul, seeking his father's asses, found himself suddenly turned into a king.
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