How to parse. ...

Par. II6.] OF PARTICIPLES.

87

But the Incomplete form may sometimes denote
an action in the Indefinite Past, as in the first
example of Paragraph 114.
Note that the Complete as well as the Incomplete
form of the Participle can be used either for Present,
Past, or Future. For example, "Having walked on,
I came to Windsor" means not " when I have
walked on" but " when I had walked on," so that
the Participle is here put for the Complete Past.
A future action is expressed in a Participle by
a Phrase with " being," e.g. " being on the point of
death," "being about to die " (where " to die " must
be regarded as the Object of " about").
II6 The confusion in the uses of the Participle is, perhaps,
in part explained by its having been confused with the
abbreviated Adverbial use of the Verbal. For example,
"in," or, "on walking" could naturally mean either " engaged in walking," or" upon," i.e. " afer walking." When
this Adverbial Phrase was contracted to "a-walking,"
or simply " walking," it was easily confused with the
Participle.
Originally the Participle ended in -nd, and the Verbal
in -nq; but very early, the Participle assumed -ng. See Par.
554-8.