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93. Present Active Participle.

1. The present active participle denotes an action or state present, and in progress at the time represented by the principal verb; as, "We find, found, or shall find him sitting in a chair.” 2. This participle always ends in ing; it has an active signification, and may be used in abridging propositions; as, "I saw a man walking in the meadow," i. e. who was walking. It may be used wholly as an adjective, it is then placed before the noun; as, "The roaring billows." When thus used, it is called a participial adjective. It may be used with the copula in the progressive form of the verb; as, "I am reading." It may be used like the Latin gerund to denote a concomitant act; as, "The Son of Man came eating and drinking." It may be used (1.) wholly as a noun, with the preceding, and of following; as, "The reading of the law;" or (2.) in the construction of the noun with the modifications of the verb; as, "The eye is never satisfied with beholding the stupendous works of the Creator."

3. Though this participle is usually active, it sometimes has a passive signification. When an object is undergoing a progressive change, and we wish to express this as a continuous reception of the act, our language is deficient in appropriate forms. Good writers have resorted to the use of the active participle, giving it a passive signification; as, "The house is building." "New efforts are making for the extension

of this trade."-Webster. "This new tragedy was acting."—Everett. Recent writers of some distinction have adopted the forms, "The house is being built." "Preparations are being made.” It is not the province of the grammarian to dictate as to questions of usage, but to admit and explain whatever good, national, and reputable usage sanctions. When subjected to these tests, it must be said of such forms, that they are by no means adopted by the best writers as good English, they are not sanctioned by the best grammarians, and they are of too recent origin to be regarded as idioms of the language.

94. Present Passive Participle.

1. The present passive participle denotes the reception of an act, at the time represented by the principal verb; as, “He lives, lived, will live, loved by all."

2. This participle may be used as an adjective, or with the copula, to form the passive verb; as, "A refined taste is possessed only by the cultivated." When preceded by being, it may be used as a noun; as, "By

Sometimes has a pas

The present active participle. Its form and uses. sive signification. The present passive participle. Its uses.

being involved in one wrong act, he was soon lost to all the appeals of his friends."

95. Perfect Participles, Active and Passive.

1. The perfect active participle denotes an action or state completed at the time represented by the principal verb; as, "Having finished his speech, he sat down."

2. The perfect passive participle denotes the reception of an act, past and completed, at the time represented by the principal verb; as, "Having been driven from home, he enlisted in the army."

3. The perfect participles are never used like the present, with the copula, to form the predicate. They may be used as verbal nouns; as, "He was accused of having obtained goods on false pretences."

96. The Participle predicated or assumed.

1. The action or state expressed by the participle may be either predicated or assumed (163, 7); as, "The horse is running through the street;" "The horse running through the street."

2. The participle, when the act is predicated, constitutes, with the copula, or auxiliary have, a form of the verb. The present participle is used in the progressive form (109, 1) or imperfect tenses; the past in the complete form, or perfect; the passive, in the passive form; as, "The farmer was ploughing his field." "The farmer had ploughed his field." "The field was ploughed by the farmer."

3. The participle, when the act is assumed, is equivalent to a subordinate clause; as, "The boat which sails on yonder lake is propelled by steam" The boat sailing on yonder lake is propelled by steam.

97. Exercise.

1. Write the participles of the following verbs :

Find, obey, ride, grow, lie, lay, sit, set, lose, loose, load, steal, arrive, suppose, happen, come, do, take, run.

2. Use each of the above participles in a short sentence.

MODELS. Finding his mistake, he left. The source of the river being found, the travellers returned home. Having found the owner, he restored the ring.

The perfect active participle. The perfect passive participle. The action predicated or assumed.

3. Point out the PARTICIPLES in the following examples; tell what kind of participle each one is, and name the verb from which it is derived :—

Let the last feeble and lingering glance of my dying eyes, rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced,-its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured.- Webster.

One wave rises, and having reached its destined limit, falls gently away, and is succeeded by yet another.-Story.

Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steeds to battle driven,
And louder than the bolts of heaven,

Far flashed the red artillery.-Campbell.

The warriors on the turrets high,
Moving athwart the evening sky,

Seemed forms of giant height.

Above the gloomy portal arch,
Timing his footsteps to a march,
The warder kept his guard,
Low humming as he paced along,

Some ancient border-gathering song.-Scott.

98. Tense.

1. Tense primarily denotes the time of an action or event.

2. Although tense properly denotes the time of an action or event, the tense form of the verb is made also to denote the state of an act. If an act is spoken of without reference to its progress or completion, we have the simple or indefinite present, past, or future; as, I love, I loved, I shall love. But if a progressive and unfinished state of the act is to be represented, we have another form for the present, past, and future; as, I am writing, I was writing, I shall be writing. If, again, we wish to represent the finished or completed state of an indefinite act, we have still another form for the present, past, and future; as, I have loved, I had loved, I shall have loved. If we wish to represent the finished or completed state of a progressive act, we have yet another form; as, I have been writing, I had been writing, I shall have been writing. If we wish to make the simple form emphatic, we have again, another; as, I do love, I did love, for the present and past. If we wish to show that the subject is receiving or suffering an act in present, past, or future time, we have the forms, I am loved, I was loved, I shall be loved.

Tense. Time and state of an act. Progressive, complete, and passive state.

3. Tense does not mean the time which elapses from the beginning to the end of an act, that is, the duration of an act. But it refers either to the present, to an indefinite period antecedent to the present, or to an indefinite period subsequent to the present. The present, strictly speaking, has no length; it is the point where the past and future meet. But for the purposes of language, any portion, as a day, a month, a year, a century, may be taken as the present, and all other time as past or future. The present progressive form, however, always assumes the moment of speaking as present.

4. The present is the point or period of time assumed by the speaker or writer, and is the epoch to which all events are referred. Whatever occurs in it, whether before or after the precise moment of speaking, is present; whatever occurs out of it, is either past or future.

99. Divisions of Time.

1. There are three divisions of time-the past, the present, and the future.

2. Were it not necessary to make other distinctions in time based on a subdivision of these three, there would be but three tense forms,-the present, the past, and the future. But it is often required to give to an event a double reference: (1.) to the time of speaking, and (2.) to a given point or portion of the present, past, or future. Tenses which require this second point of reference are called relative tenses; while those which have only a single reference to the speaker are called absolute tenses

3. Each division has two tenses-an absolute and a relative. There are, therefore, six tenses-three absolute and three relative; as (absolute), "I write," "I wrote," "I shall write,” (relative), “I have written' (some time to-day or this year), "I had written" (before the boat sailed), "I shall have written" (at noon).

4. The absolute tenses take their name from the division of time to which they belong. Thus we have the present tense, the past tense, the future tense. The relative tenses affix to the name of the tense, the word perfect, which refers, not so much to the time as to the completion of the act. Thus we have the present perfect, the past perfect, and the future perfect.

5. To these six tenses may be added, with propriety, three others, called the present imperfect, past imperfect, and future imperfect; as, “I am writing;” “I was writing;" "I shall be writing." These forms are usually relative tenses; as, "I am writing while you are reading;" "I

Tense not the duration of an act. of time. Absolute and relative tenses.

Signification of "present." Divisions
Perfect and imperfect.

was writing when the coach arrived;" "I shall be writing when you return." These are, however, called the progressive form of the verb, and may be used even in the perfect tenses, to show that a progressive act is completed; as, "I have been writing" (but I am not now); "I had been writing" (but I was not at the past time referred to); "I shall have been writing" (but not at the future time referred to).

100. Classes of Tenses.

The tenses are- -the present, the present perfect; the past, the past perfect; the future, the future perfect.

101. Present Tense.

1. The present tense represents what takes place in present time; as, "I see;" "I am seeing;" "I do see ;” “I am seen.”

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2. By present time is meant the present of the speaker or writer. The present of the hearer is the same as that of the speaker; but that of the reader is not the same as that of the writer.

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3. This tense, in the common form, is used to denote a general truth or what is customary; as, "The boy attends school;" "Vice produces "Truth is powerful.' misery;" In the progressive form indicative, it expresses what is now actually taking place; as, “He is writing.” Mark the difference between "He sings," that is, "He is a singer" (but is not singing now), and "He is singing."

4. The present is often used for other tenses. (1.) It is used for the pust in animated narratives, where the writer or speaker seems transported to the scene which he describes; as, "He seizes his musket, approaches the monster, and lays him upon the ground." (1.) It is used for the present perfect in speaking of authors long since dead, when their writings are referred to; as, "Matthew traces the descent of Joseph; Luke traces that of Mary." (3.) It is used for the future after relative pronouns, and the subordinate connectives, till, until, as soon as, when, before, if; as, "We will pay him when he comes." "He will devour every insect which comes in his way."

102. Present Perfect Tense.

1. The present perfect tense represents a past event completed in present time; as, "I have seen;" "I have been seeing;" "I have been seen."

Present tense. Common, and progressive forms. The present used for other tenses. The present perfect.

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