The Nature of the Gerund and Participle

Abstract

THE GERUND and the participle are related through membership in a class of verbs which is not limited by person, number, and mood. Thus they are called 'infinites.' They were originally distinguished by the fact that the gerund was a verbal noun, ending in -ing, and, until about I25o, -ung, and the participle a verbal adjective, ending in -ende, -inde, -ynde, -ande. The suffix distinctions have gradually disappeared. There is less distinction in the parts of speech. Their similarities have increased. This paper will be confined to a statement regarding these similarities. It will not deal with historical development, nor with dissimilarity. It will deal with the functions, the characteristics, and the forms of the gerund and the participle, and will lead toward a conclusion regarding classification and nomenclature. A common function of the participle is indicated in the expressions 'a grasping nature,' 'the breaking waves,' 'his laughing eyes.' The fiunction is that of an adjective, the sense is that of a verb. Sometimes, at the moment of use, the verb sense has lessened, and the word seems almost a pure adjective, as in the expressions 'she had polished manners' and 'informed persons do not hold such views.' In the case of perfect participles, where the old -en form is used, the sense of verbness has almost entirely disappeared and the participle is thought of as purely adjectival: 'a cloven hoof; 'a graven image'; 'a drunken man.' Other perfect endings which seem to impart almost a pure adjective use are seen in the statements 'a clean-shaved face' and 'the wind-swept plains.' Thus, it is evident that the ending -ing lends a greater verb sense than the endings -en, -ed, -t (as in burnt), and an irregular like swept. The ending -ed seems to have more verb sense than the ending -en. The expression 'a cleanshaved face' has more verbness than 'a clean-shaven face.' 'A wind-swept hill' has a surprisingly small amount of verb action. The expression is mostly adjectival. But in 'the running water' there is action, and the action is continuing. Completedness and passivity tend to remove the verb sense from a participle. Sometimes it is the nature of the use and not the ending or the form of the word that increases or lessens its verb sense. 'The split wood' has more of the verb in it than 'a split personality' has. This is probably due to a semantic change. Thus, it is apparent from the above instances that when endings other than -ing are employed, the participle loses its verb sense and becomes almost a pure adjective, and gets further away from the gerund.