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From: rte@elmo.lz.att.com (Ralph T. Edwards)
Subject: Re: Artifacts of ancient thought in contemporary English
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Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 15:24:06 GMT
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In article <3p9b68$asb@jobe.shell.portal.com>, jrb@shell.portal.com (Jerry
Randal Bauer) wrote:

> (A gerund is a noun made from a verb:
> "Her PLAYING is improving."  A participle is the 'meat' of a compound
> verb: "She is PLAYING the piano.")  In this view, participles _are_
> gerunds -- nouns -- and any distinction is artificial.

Participles in European languages were originally adjectives, and are
still used this way in English.  The mooing cow, a cooked meal.  Use as
portions of compound are innovations.  In the case of the present
participle, the innovation is fairly recent.  No other Germanic language
uses present participles as verb pieces.

>  Is it
> coincidence that related gerunds and participles are spelled and
> pronounced identically?  I don't think so.
> 

Well, actually it is.  Originally the gerund had -ing- and the participle -end-.
I think this distinction was lost somewhere in the ME period.  German
maintains the distinction.  The loss was presumably a result of
pronunciation change.
(Loss of the final d and resulting confusion with (sometimes weakened) -ing.

-- 
R.T.Edwards rte@elmo.att.com 908 576-3031
