We submit that the
extension of a class term so as to include words having these relations
that the Anglo-Saxon gerund never had, is not warranted by any precedent
except that furnished above in the extension of the term _infinitive_ or of
the term _verbal noun_!
Still others call some of these words _Infinitives_; some of them _Verbal
Nouns_; and some of them _Gerunds_.
The forms in question--_seeing, having seen, being seen, having been seen_,
and _having been seeing_, for instance--are now made from the verb in
precisely the same way when partaking the nature of the noun as when
partaking the nature of the adjective. What can they possibly be but the
forms that all grammarians call _participles_ extended to new uses? If the
uses of the original participles have been extended, why may we not carry
over the name? The name _participle_ is as true to its etymology when
applied to the nounal use of the verb as when applied to the adjectival
use. For convenience of classification we call these disputed forms
_participles_, as good grammarians long ago called them and still call
them, though some of them may be traced back to the Saxon verbal noun or to
the infinitive, and though the Saxon participle was adjectival. The name
_participle_ neither confounds terms nor misleads the student.
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