How to parse. ...

Par. 588, 589.] PARTICIPLE, VERBAL.

323

1. The Participle (1) in the twelfth century, in the form
-nde, (2) in the fourteenth century, in the form -inge, invaded the province of the Gerundive; and we find " for to
witiende," i.e. " to guard; " "to witinge," i.e. "to wit;"
"the night that is to coming," i.e. " to come;" "to beringe," i.e. (ready) " to bear."1 But in the fifteenth and
following centuries these forms died out.
2. In the latter part of the fifteenth century we find an
attempt, on the part of the form in -ing, to appropriate the
province of the Noun Infinitive: "Our lord will yeu/ng
(= yeven) hym pardon." But this is both late and exceptional.1
588 But the great and important change was the
assimilation of the syntax of the Verbal Noun to
the syntax of the Participle. At first the uses were
distinct:
PARTICIPLE. VERBAL.
" He is huntinde." 2 "He went on huntinge."2
"Lesende ane finger." " Up peyn of losing of a
finger."
589 While this distinction was preserved, the Verbal
Noun was not used (according to Dr. Morris) after
"is " or " was," except in Passive signification:"The churche was in byldynge;" "As this was a (i.e.
in, on, or an) doyng."
1 Morris's Historical Outlines, page 177.
2 So also" He fell on sleepinge," but not "he was on huntinge," ib.
page 177. " Was " and "is" were followed by the Active Participle.
But the Active Participle is said to be very rare between 1150-1250
A.D., only occurring twenty-two times in the whole of the earlier
text of Layanion, and only eleven times in the later. See Par. 24,
Dissertation on the English Verb, by Emil Schwerdtfeger, Holt and
Co., New York.