THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE.
s. 401. The present participle, called also the active participle and the
participle in _-ing_, is formed from the original word by adding _-ing_;
as, _move_, _moving_. In the older languages the termination was more
marked, being _-nd_. Like the Latin participle in _-ns_, it was originally
declined. The Moeso-Gothic and Old High German forms are _habands_ and
_hap[^e]nt[^e]r_=_having_, respectively. The _-s_ in the one language, and
the _-[^e]r_ in the other, are the signs of the case and gender. In the Old
Saxon and Anglo-Saxon the forms are _-and_ and _-ande_; as _bindand_,
_bindande_=_binding_. In all the Norse languages, ancient and modern, the
_-d_ is preserved. So it is in the Old Lowland Scotch, and in many of the
modern provincial dialects of England, where _strikand_, _goand_, is said
for _striking_, _going_. In Staffordshire, where the _-ing_ is pronounced
_-ingg_, there is a fuller sound than that of the current English. In Old
English the form in _-nd_ is predominant, in Middle English, the use
fluctuates, and in New English the termination _-ing_ is universal. In the
Scotch of the modern writers we find the form _-in_.
The rising sun o'er Galston muirs
Wi' glorious light was glintin';
The hares were hirplin' down the furs,
The lav'rocks they were chantin'.
BURNS' _Holy Fair_.
It is with the oblique cases of the present participles of the classical
languages, rather than with the nominative, that we must compare the
corresponding participle in Gothic; _e.g._, {349} [Greek: echont-os]
(_ekhontos_), Greek; _habent-is_, Latin; _hap[^e]nt-[^e]r_, Old High
German.
s. 402. It has often been remarked that the participle is used in many
languages as a substantive. This is true in Greek,
[Greek: Ho prasson]=_the actor_, when a male.
[Greek: He prassousa]=_the actor_, when a female.
[Greek: To pratton]=_the active principle of a thing_.
s. 403. But it is also stated, that, in the English language, the
participle is used as a substantive in a greater degree than elsewhere, and
that it is used in several cases and in both numbers, _e.g._,
_Rising_ early is healthy,
There is health _in rising_ early.
This is the advantage _of rising_ early.
The _risings_ in the North, &c.
Archbishop Whately has some remarks on this substantival power in his
Logic.
Some remarks of Mr. R. Taylor, in the Introduction to his edition of
Tooke's Diversions of Purley, modify this view. According to these, the
_-ing_ in words like _rising_ is not the _-ing_ of the present participle;
neither has it originated in the Anglo-Saxon _-end_. It is rather the
_-ing_ in words like _morning_, which is anything but a participle of the
non-existent verb _morn_, and which has originated in the Anglo-Saxon
substantival termination _-ung_. Upon this Rask writes as
follows:--"_Gitsung_, _gewilnung_=_desire_; _swutelung_=_manifestation_;
_claensung_=_a cleansing_; _sceawung_=_view_, _contemplation_; _eordh
beofung_=_an earthquake_; _gesomnung_=_an assembly_. This termination is
chiefly used in forming substantives from verbs of the first class in
_-ian_; as, _h['a]lgung_=_consecration_, from _h['a]lgian_=_to consecrate_.
These verbs are all feminine."--Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 107.
Now, whatever may be the theory of the origin of the termination _-ing_ in
old phrases like _rising early is healthy_, it cannot apply to expressions
of recent introduction. Here the direct origin in _-ung_ is out of the
question. {350}
The view, then, that remains to be taken of the forms in question is this:
1. That the older forms in _-ing_ are substantival in origin, and=the
Anglo-Saxon _-ung_.
2. That the latter ones are participial, and have been formed on a false
analogy.
* * * * *
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