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LESSON 37.
VERBS AS ADJECTIVES AND AS NOUNS--PARTICIPLES.
+Introductory Hints.+--_Corn grows; Corn growing._ Here _growing_ differs
from _grows_ in lacking the power to assert. _Growing_ is a form of the
verb that cannot, like _grows_, make a complete predicate because it only
assumes or implies that the corn does the act. _Corn_ may be called the
assumed subject of _growing_.
_Birds, singing, delight us._ Here _singing_ does duty (1) as an adjective,
describing birds by assuming or implying an act, and (2) as a verb by
expressing the act of singing as going on at the time birds delight us.
_By singing their songs birds delight us._ Here _singing_ has the nature of
a verb and that of a noun. As a verb it has an object complement, _songs_;
and as a noun it names the act, and stands as the principal word in a
prepositional phrase.
_Their singing so sweetly delights us_. Here, also, _singing_ has the
nature of a verb and that of a noun. As a verb it has an adverb modifier,
_sweetly_, and as a noun it names an act and takes a possessive modifier.
This form of the verb is called the +Participle+ (Lat. _pars_, a part, and
_capere_, to take) because it partakes of two natures and performs two
offices--those of a verb and an adjective, or those of a verb and a noun.
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