An English Grammar Part 51

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

262. Verbals are words that express action in a general way, without limiting the action to any time, or a.s.serting it of any subject.

[Sidenote: _Kinds._]

Verbals may be participles, infinitives, or gerunds.

PARTICIPLES.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

263. Participles are _adjectival_ verbals; that is, they either belong to some substantive by expressing action in connection with it, or they express action, and directly modify a substantive, thus having a descriptive force. Notice these functions.

[Sidenote: _Pure participle in function._]

1. At length, _wearied_ by his cries and agitations, and not _knowing_ how to put an end to them, he addressed the animal as if he had been a rational being.--DWIGHT.

Here _wearied_ and _knowing_ belong to the subject _he_, and express action in connection with it, but do not describe.

[Sidenote: _Express action and also describe._]

2. Another name glided into her pet.i.tion--it was that of the _wounded_ Christian, whom fate had placed in the hands of bloodthirsty men, his _avowed_ enemies.--SCOTT.

Here _wounded_ and _avowed_ are participles, but are used with the same adjectival force that _bloodthirsty_ is (see Sec. 143, 4).

Participial adjectives have been discussed in Sec. 143 (4), but we give further examples for the sake of comparison and distinction.

[Sidenote: _Fossil participles as adjectives._]

3. As _learned_ a man may live in a cottage or a college commmon-room.--THACKERAY

4. Not merely to the soldier are these campaigns _interesting_ --BAYNE.

5. How _charming_ is divine philosophy!--MILTON.

[Sidenote: _Forms of the participle._]

264. Participles, in expressing action, may be active or pa.s.sive, incomplete (or imperfect), complete (perfect or past), and perfect definite.

They cannot be divided into tenses (present, past, etc.), because they have no tense of their own, but derive their tense from the verb on which they depend; for example,--

1. He walked conscientiously through the services of the day, _fulfilling_ every section the minutest, etc.--DE QUINCEY.

_Fulfilling_ has the form to denote continuance, but depends on the verb _walked_, which is past tense.

2. Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, Comes _dancing_ from the East.--MILTON.

_Dancing_ here depends on a verb in the present tense.

265. PARTICIPLES OF THE VERB _CHOOSE_.

ACTIVE VOICE.

_Imperfect._ Choosing.

_Perfect._ Having chosen.

_Perfect definite._ Having been choosing.

Pa.s.sIVE VOICE.

_Imperfect._ None _Perfect._ Chosen, being chosen, having been chosen.

_Perfect definite._ None.

Exercise.

Pick out the participles, and tell whether active or pa.s.sive, imperfect, perfect, or perfect definite. If pure participles, tell to what word they belong; if adjectives, tell what words they modify.

1. The change is a large process, accomplished within a large and corresponding s.p.a.ce, having, perhaps, some central or equatorial line, but lying, like that of our earth, between certain tropics, or limits widely separated.

2. I had fallen under medical advice the most misleading that it is possible to imagine.

3. These views, being adopted in a great measure from my mother, were naturally the same as my mother's.

4. Endowed with a great command over herself, she soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendency over her people.

5. No spectacle was more adapted to excite wonder.

6. Having fully supplied the demands of nature in this respect, I returned to reflection on my situation.

7. Three saplings, stripped of their branches and bound together at their ends, formed a kind of bedstead.

8. This all-pervading principle is at work in our system,--the creature warring against the creating power.

9. Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.

10. Nothing of the kind having been done, and the principles of this unfortunate king having been distorted,... try clemency.

INFINITIVES.

266. Infinitives, like participles, have no tense. When active, they have an indefinite, an imperfect, a perfect, and a perfect definite form; and when pa.s.sive, an indefinite and a perfect form, to express action unconnected with a subject.