participle expresses an action as the verb does, and there can be no action, without an actor; and, as the real action is always connected with the person or thing that does it; so the words denoting the actor and action, must have some sort of relation to each other. Tutor. You begin to understand, I perceive, the relation that words have to one another George. You said that the participle partakes of the nature of an adjective, and sometimes belongs to a noun like an adjective; will you give us some examples? Tutor. Yes: I see a running stream, and flying clouds. Here you see that the participles, running and flying, are used as adjectives. And when participles are so used, you may call them adjectives. Some grammarians call them participial adjectives. But I have another relation to explain, respecting the participle. When I say, The master sees the great boy teaching the little child,-what case do you think the noun child is in? George. Child is the object of the action, expressed by the participle teaching, therefore I should take it to be in the objective case, but we have no rule yet, which tells us that an objective case is governed by a participle. Tutor. You are right; and, as you understand the principle and the relation of the words, you might make a rule yourself. I will, however, give you one. RULE VII. Participles of TRANSITIVE verbs govern the objective case. Now parse all the words in the sentence I gave you a few minutes since-The master, &c.—and then parse the following examples, containing the five parts of speech with which you are acquainted: viz. Nouns, Verbs, Articles, Adjectives, and Participles. EXERCISES IN PARSING. The hunters shoot the deer running. The child sees the hawk killing the chickens.. Why is it called Participle? Which have I explained? What rule do you give when you parse the participle? What rule, when you parse the objective case which is governed by it? I will now give you a few more particular REMARKS ON PARTICIPLES. There are three participles, the Present or Active, the Perfect or Passive, and the Compound Perfect ; as, " loving, loved, having loved." Agreeably to the general practice of grammarians, I have represented the present participle, as active; and the past, as passive but they are not uniformly so the present is sometimes passive; and the past is frequently active. Thus, The youth was consuming by a slow malady;" "The Indian was burning by the cruelty of his enemies ;""The number is augmenting daily;"" Plutarch's Lives are reprinting ;” appear to be instances of the present participle's being used passively. "He has instructed me;" "I have gratefully repaid his kindness;" are examples of the past participle's being applied in an active sense. It may also be observed, that the present participle is sometimes associated with the past and future tenses of the verb; and the past participle connected with the present and future tenses.-The most unexceptionable distinction which grammarians make between the participles, is, that the one points to the continuation of the action, passion, or state, denoted by the verb; and the other, to the completion of it. Thus, the present participle signifies imperfect action, or action begun and not ended: as, "I am writing a letter." The past participle signifies action perfect-") ed, or finished: as, "I have written a letter;"" The letter is written."* The participle is distinguished from the adjective, by the former's expressing the idea of time, and the latter's denoting only a quality. The phrases" loving to give as well as to receive," "moving in haste," "heated with liquor," contain participles giving the idea of time; but the epithets contained in * When this participle is joined to the verb to have, it is called perfect; when it is joined to the verb to be, or understood with it, it is denominated passive. 99.66 a the expressions," a loving child," "a moving spectacle," heated imagination," mark simply the qualities referred to, without any regard to time; and may properly be called participial adjectives. Participles not only convey the notion of time; but they also signify actions, and govern the cases of nouns and pronouns, in the same manner as verbs do. Participles sometimes perform the office of substantives, and are used as such as in the following instances: "The beginning"" a good understanding;" "excellent writing "The chancellor's being attached to the king secured his crown;""The general's having failed in this enterprise occasioned his disgrace;" "John's having been writing a long time had wearied him." That the words in italics of the three latter examples, perform the office of substantives, and may be considered as such, will be evident, if we reflect, that the first of them has exactly the same meaning and construction as, "The chancellor's attachment to the king secured the crown;" and that the other examples will bear a similar construction. The words, being attached, govern the word chancellor's in the possessive case, in the one instance, as clearly as attachment governs it in that case, in the other: and it is only substantives, or words and phrases which operate as substantives, that govern the genitive or possessive case. The following sentence is not precisely the same as the above, either in sense or construction, though, except the possessive case, the words are the same: "The chancellor, being attached to the king, secured his crown." In the former, the words, being attached, form the nominative case to the verb, and are stated as the cause of the effect; in the latter, they are not the nominative case, and make only a circumstance to chancellor, which is the proper nominative. It may not be improper to add another form of this sentence, by which the learner may better understand the peculiar nature and form of each of these modes of expression: "The chancellor being attached to the king, his crown was secured." This constitutes what is properly called, the CASE ABSOLUTE; or, the NOMINATIVE ABSOLUTE. QUESTIONS. In what respect is a participle like a verb P How is it like an adjective? How does it differ from it? ed Participle; and then introduce it into your exercises in parsing. A participle is a word which is derived from a verb, and participates of the nature of a verb, and also of an adjective. It participates of the nature of a verb, because it expresses action as the verb does; and it partakes of the nature of an adjective, because it frequently belongs to some noun, and is used as an adjective There are three kinds of participles present, perfect, and compound perfect participles. A present participle, which is the only one I shall now explain to you, denotes an action, continuing, or still going on, and ends in ing as, I see a boy beating a dog.-I see the dog running, walking, fighting, eating, drinking, &c. These are present participles, derived from the verbs beat, run, walk, fight, eat, drink, &c. The rule you will give when you parse this participle is, RULE VI. A present participle refers to some noun or pronoun, of which it expresses the action or being. 3 George. I suppose, then, according to the rule, that the first participle, which you mentioned, beating, refers to the noun boy-and running, walking, eating, drinking, fighting, all refer to the noun dog. Tutor. You are right. Caroline. You say that a participle refers to the noun, &c.; but you said that the verb agrees with its nominative, which is the word denoting the actor; and why cannot a participle agree in the same manner ? Tutor. I shall be able to explain this to you better, a few days hence, than I can now. But I will try to make you com prehend the reason.-When I say, the boy beats the dogyou perceive that the verb ends in s, and is of the third person, singular, to agree with its nominative boy. If I make the nominative of the plural number, and say, the boys, I must write the verb without the 8: thus, the boys beat, &c. because beat is the plural verb, and beats is singular; and the verb, you know, must agree with its nominative in number and person. The participle never varies its termination; it is spelled in the same manner, whether the word denoting the actor, be singular or plural, as you may see by the following examples: I see the boys running, or the boy running. Caroline. I understand that the participle does not agree with a noun, but simply refers to it and I know it must, of necessity, refer to some word that denotes the actor, because the participle expresses an action as the verb does, and there can be no action without an actor; and, as the real action is always connected with the person or thing that does it; so the words denoting the actor and action, must have some sort of relation to each other. Tutor. You begin to understand, I perceive, the relation that words have to one another George. You said that the participle partakes of the nature of an adjective, and sometimes belongs to a noun like an adjective; will you give us some examples? Tutor. Yes: I see a running stream, and flying clouds. Here you see that the participles, running and flying, are used as adjectives. And when participles are so used, you may call them adjectives. Some grammarians call them participial adjectives. But I have another relation to explain, respecting the participle. When I say, The master sees the great boy teaching the little child,-what case do you think the noun child is in ? George. Child is the object of the action, expressed by the participle teaching, therefore I should take it to be in the objective case, but we have no rule yet, which tells us that an objective case is governed by a participle. Tutor. You are right; and, as you understand the principle and the relation of the words, you might make a rule yourself. I will, however, give you one. RULE VII. Participles of TRANSITIVE verbs govern the objective case. Now parse all the words in the sentence I gave you a few minutes since-The master, &c.—and then parse the following examples, containing the five parts of speech with which you are acquainted: viz. Nouns, Verbs, Articles, Adjectives, and Participles. EXERCISES IN PARSING. The hunters shoot the deer running. The child sees the hawk killing the chickens.. |