Participles are formed by adding to the verb the termination _ing,
ed_, or _en_. _Ing_ signifies the same as the noun _being_. When
postfixed to the noun-state of the verb, the compound word thus
formed, expresses a continued state of the verbal denotement. It
implies that what is meant by the verb, is _being_ continued. _En_
is an alteration of _an_, the Saxon verbalizing adjunct; _ed_ is a
contraction of _dede_; and the terminations _d_ and _t_, are a
contraction of _ed_. Participles ending in _ed_ or _en_, usually
denote the _dodo, dede, doed, did, done_, or _finished_ state of
what is meant by the verb. The book is _printed_. It is a _print-ed_
or _print-done_ book, or such a one as the _done_ act of _printing_
has made it. The book is _written_; i.e. it has received the _done_
or _finish-ed_ act of _writ-ing_ it.
Participles bear the same relation to verbs, that adnouns do to
nouns. They might, therefore, be styled _verbal adjectives_. But
that theory which ranks them with adnouns, appears to rest on a
sandy foundation. In classifying words, we ought to be guided more
by their _manner_ of meaning, and their _inferential_ meaning, than
by their primitive, essential signification. "I have a _broken_
plate;" i.e. I have a plate--_broken_; "I have _broken_ a plate." If
there is no difference in the _essential_ meaning of the word
_broken_, in these two constructions, it cannot be denied, that
there is a wide difference in the meaning--_inferred_ by custom;
which difference depends on the _manner_ in which the term is
applied. The former construction denotes, that I _possess_ a plate
which was _broken_, (whether with or without my agency, is not
intimated,) perhaps, one hundred or one thousand years ago; whereas,
the meaning of the latter is, that I _performed the act_ of reducing
the plate from a whole to a _broken_ state; and it is not intimated
whether I possess it, or some one else. It appears reasonable, that,
in a practical grammar, at least, any word which occurs in
constructions differing so widely, may properly be classed with
different parts of speech. This illustration likewise establishes
the propriety of retaining what we call the _perfect tense_ of the
verb.
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