PARTICIPLES.

A participle is a word which expresses an action or state, like a verb, and belongs to a noun like an adjective.

It is so called because it participates the properties of both a verb and an adjective.

A participle, like a verb, denotes an action or state, and, like a verb, is transitive or intransitive, and when transitive is used in the active and passive voices; but it cannot be so used as to express an affirmation. Like an adjective, it belongs to a noun; as, "I see a man cutting wood." Here, cutting denotes an action, is in the active voice, and has an object like a transitive verb; it belongs to the noun man, like an adjective.*

Note. The participle is no more entitled to be considered a distinct part of speech, than the infinitive mood is. They are both participles in the etymological sense of the term; the one participating in the properties of an adjective and a verb, the other of a noun and a verb.

The participle has three forms in the active voice, and three in the passive.

Each voice has the Imperfect and the Perfect participle. The active voice has also the Auxiliary Perfect participle, and the passive voice has the Passive participle.

The Imperfect participle denotes the continuance

What is a participle?

Why so called?

Like an adjective?

How many participles has each verb? In what respect is a participle like a verb? | What does the imperfect participle imply?

* Participles are intermediate between verbs and adjectives, as zoophytes are between animals and vegetables. Lord Bacon gives the name participle to those productions which seem to form a connecting link between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. "The participles or confiners between plants and living creatures are such chiefly as are fixed, and have no local motion of remove, though they have a motion in their parts. * ** * There is a fabulous narration, that in the northern countries there should be an herb that groweth in the likeness of a lamb, and feedeth upon the grass in such sort as it will bare the grass round about."-Natural History, page 609.

of the action or state; as, "John is cutting wood;" "Being loved by all, Alice is happy."

The Perfect participle denotes the completion of the action or state; as, "Having cut the wood, he is making a fire;" "The wood having been cut, he will make a fire."

In the example, "John is cutting wood," the action is represented as imperfect, or continuing; in "Having cut the wood," the action is represented as perfect, or completed.

The Passive participle merely denotes that the object to whose name it belongs is acted upon; as, "The wood was cut ;" "Mary is loved."

The Auxiliary Perfect participle is used to aid in forming the perfect tenses; as, "I have loved;" "The wood has been cut.'

The passive participle and the auxiliary perfect participle are always alike in form.

Remarks.—1. The imperfect participle is usually called the present, but may denote either a present, a past, or a future action; as, "I am writing, I was writing, I shall be writing." The action is present only in relation to the time of the verb with which it is connected.

2. As the imperfect participle denotes an action continuing or incomplete, so the perfect participle denotes an action completed at the time referred to by the principal verb. It may, like the imperfect participle, denote either a present, a past, or a future action, but it always represents the action as perfect or completed at the time referred to; as, "Having cut the wood, he made a fire yesterday;" "Having cut the wood, he is now making a fire;” “Having cut the wood to-morrow, he will make a fire."

3. That eminent grammarian, Goold Brown, calls this the pluperfect participle, "not because this compound is really of the pluperfect tense, but because it always denotes being, action, or passion, that is, or was, or will be completed before the doing or being of something else; and, of course, when the latter thing is represented as past, the participle must correspond to the

What does the perfect particlple imply? What other participles have transitive verbs?

What does the passive participle imply?

What is this participle called when used to aid in forming the perfect tenses of the active voice?

pluperfect tense of its verb; as, 'Having explained her views, it was necessary she should expatiate on the vanity and futility of the enjoyments promised by pleasure.'-Jamieson's Rhetoric, p. 181. Here, having explained is equivalent to when she had explained."-Institutes of English Grammar, p. 83. Pluperfect does not mean completed before; it is a technical name of a particular tense, and if it is applied to a participle, it should be because the participle resembles the tense in some respect. When past time is referred to, it does resemble the pluperfect tense; but when present time is referred to, it resembles the perfect tense; and if the time is future, it resembles the second future tense. If the time referred to in the example quoted by Mr. Brown, were present, having explained would be equivalent to when she has explained; and if the time were future, the same participle would be equivalent to when she shall have explained. It would be as correct to call this the second future participle as the pluperfect.

The nature of this participle may be easily learned by observing to what tenses it is equivalent; these are the present perfect, the past perfect, and the future perfect. The participle, then, belongs to no particular division of time, and simply denotes action perfect, that is, completed at any time.

4. The passive participle is usually called the perfect participle. "It is manifest," says Mr. Brown, " that the perfect participle of the verb to love, whether active or passive, is the simple word loved, and not this compound [having love l."] In this we think he is mistaken. If we wish to express, by a participle, an action completed at any time, we use the compound form, and this is the perfect participle. The characteristic of the participle in ea is, that it implies the reception of an action; as, "Cæsar was killed by Brutus." In this sentence Cæsar is represented as acted upon by Brutus. Was does not express this idea-it makes the affirmation, and points to the time, but killed is the word which denotes the reception of the action.* It does not denote an action perfect, or completed, at the time to which was refers. Mary lives loving all, and loved by all." In this sentence loved certainly does not denote an action "done and completed;" it merely implies that the person to whose name it belongs is acted upon. "She is loved by all," is nothing more than "All love her" expressed in a passive form. This participle is the word which forms the passive voice-gives it its peculiar mode of signification.

The use of this participle in the perfect tenses of the active voice should not be taken into consideration in giving it a name or a definition. We

* "Brutus killed Cæsar," expresses, in the active form, what "Cæsar was killed by Brutus," does in the passive. Some logicians, in analyzing killed, would say, that it contained the copula was, and the predicate killing; incorrectly, however, for killing denotes the continuance of the action. Neither killing nor having killed would answer; a third participle would be necessary to denote the action without reference to the continuance or the completion. This participle would be the simple active participle, and would have the same relation to the active form that killed has to the passive. The active form expresses the copula and predicate by one word, so that there is no need of this third participle in the active voice. What that third participle would be to the active, the passive participle is to the passive.

might, with as much propriety, take into view the use of the verb to have as an auxiliary, when defining it as a principal verb. When a word entirely changes its application, it becomes in effect a different word. Words are classified according to their signification, and not according to form. It is probable that this participle was originally a passive participle; but so far from being a passive participle now, it is used in intransitive verbs, which have no passive voice. See Remarks on the Auxiliary Verbs, p. 105.

In the sentence, "I have built a house of stone," built has an active signification, and is the auxiliary perfect participle; while in the sentence, "I have a house built of stone," it has a passive meaning, and forms the passive participle.

The passive participle of certain verbs sometimes denotes completed action; as, "The house is emptied," "The house is built;""The letter is written." As far as the completion of the action is concerned, "The house is built," is equivalent to "The house has been built;" but the former sentence denotes an existing state, rather than a completed action. The name of the agent cannot be expressed in phrases of this kind. We cannot say, "The house is built by John." When we say, "The house is built by mechanics," we do not express an existing state.

5. The imperfect participle is sometimes improperly used for the perfect; as, “Saying [having said] this, he departed ;” "This being said, [having been said,] he departed."

6. Participles are sometimes used as nouns; as, "Playing is pleasant;" "He spends too much time in playing." Participles, when used as nouns, may be called participial nouns. These participial nouns, in their use, resemble the infinitive more than they do the participle in its adjective sense.*

CONJUGATION.

The conjugation of a verb is the regular arrangement of its parts, according to the voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons.

The only regular terminations added to verbs are est, s, ed, edst, and ing. Thus:

What are participial nouns?

| What is the conjugation of a verb?

"It is to be observed, also, that in English there are two infinitives, one in ing, the same in sound and spelling as the participle present, from which, however, it should be carefully distinguished: e. g. 'rising early is healthful,' and 'it is healthful to rise early,' are equivalent." "Grammarians have produced much needless perplexity in speaking of the participle in ‘ing' being employed so and so; when it is manifest that that very employment of the word constitutes it, to all intents and purposes, an infinitive, and not a participle. The advantage of the infinitive in ing, is, that it may be used in the nominative or in any oblique case."-Archbishop Whately; Logic, Book ii, Chap. 1, § 3.

Pain...painest... pains . . pained...painedst... paining; Drop..droppest.. drops..dropped..droppedst..dropping; Love...lovest. . . . loves... loved. . . . lovedst.... loving; Carry.. carriest... carries.. carried... carriedst... carrying. See General Rules for Spelling, iii, v, and vii.

All other changes are made by the use of auxiliaries.

In adding s, the same changes take place that occur in forming the plural of nouns; as, wish, wishes; go, goes; tarry, tarries.

The PRINCIPAL PARTS are the imperfect [present] infinitive, the past indicative, and the auxiliary perfect participle, which is the same in form as the passive participle. When these are known, all the parts of the verb may be formed by using the proper terminations and auxiliaries.

In regular verbs all that is necessary to be known is the imperfect [present] infinitive.

The present indicative is the same as the imperfect infinitive with the sign to omitted, except in th everb to be, which has am.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO LOVE IN THE ACTIVE VOICE.

*The third person singular of the present formerly ended in eth.

This form

is still sometimes used in the solemn style. Contractions sometimes take place; as, sayst for sayest.