(b) The participle used independently; thus, “Speaking of those yellow squash-bugs, I think I disheartened them by covering the plants so deep with soot and wood-ashes that they could not find them.”—Warner. This participial phrase corresponds to the infinitive phrase used independently, though it is more rarely met.
Exercise 25
Dispose of all participles or participial phrases in the following sentences.
1. He was noted for his success in capturing Spanish ships freighted with silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru.
2. They came and went restlessly, sitting down and knocking their steel scabbards against the tables, or rising and straddling off with their long swords kicking against their legs.—Howells.
3. The girths of the saddle gave way and he felt it slipping from under him.—Irving.
4. The populations of India became stricken with alarm as they saw their native princes thus successively dethroned.—McCarthy.
5. She was dressed to please her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to the modes declared correct by the Rockland milliners and mantua-makers.—Holmes.
6. Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave.—Kipling.
7. Livingstone taught himself Latin grammar while working at the loom.