CHAPTER VII—PARTICIPLES.
The true or regular syntax of the English Participle, as a part of speech distinct from the verb, and not converted into a noun or an adjective, is twofold; being sometimes that of simple relation to a noun or a pronoun that precedes it, and sometimes that of government, or the state of being governed by a preposition. In the former construction, the participle resembles an adjective; in the latter, it is more like a noun, or like the infinitive mood: for the participle after a preposition is governed as a participle, and not as a case.[417] To these two constructions, some add three others less regular, using the participle sometimes as the subject of a finite verb, sometimes as the object of a transitive verb, and sometimes as a nominative after a neuter verb. Of these five constructions, the first two, are the legitimate uses of this part of speech; the others are occasional, modern, and of doubtful propriety.