A Dictionary of Cont..

part; some. Part is not an exact synonym of some.
Part means something less than the whole. Some
means a certain unspecified number, amount, degree-something
less than the total. Part of our
aircraft is missing means that a part of an aircraft
is missing. Some of our aircraft are missing
means a certain number from the total number
of aircraft are missing.
part and parcel. A part is a portion of the whole.
The word emphasizes the separateness of the
portion from the whole. Parcel, in the original
meaning of this phrase, also meant a portion of
the whole, but it emphasized the portion’s inclusion
in the whole rather than its separateness.
The phrase part and parcel was a legal phrase
until the end of the eighteenth century. It is now
almost meaningless.
partake is not simply a fancy variant of take. It
means to take or have a part or share in common
with others. It always connotes sharing with
others. One should not, for example, partake of
a meal alone. As a matter of fact, one should not
now partake of a meal under any circumstances,
for the phrase, as a term for eating especially, is
considered affected, genteel, stilted. Slmre in usually
conveys the desired idea more effectively.
partiality. See prejudice.
partially; partly. Both partially and partly mean
“in part, in some measure, not wholly.” The difference
between them (as Fowler has pointed
out) may be made clear by their opposites:
wholly is the opposite of partly and completely
the opposite of partially. Partly, that is, emphasizes
the part, and partially emphasizes the whole
of which the action or condition is a part (It
was partly my fault. He was partially disabled).
If either word will give the required sense
equally well, it is better to use partly, since partinily,
which looks more elegant, tends to be
overused.
On the other hand, partially also means with
a prejudice or bias in favor of a person, group,
or side as in a controversy, unjustly (Since he
views everything partially, one cannot hope for
a fair verdict).
participles are verbal adjectives. They are sometimes
used as adjectives and sometimes to form
verbal phrases. See -ing.
The English verb has two participles. The first
is made by adding -ing to the simple form of the
verb, as in breaking and mending. This is sometimes
called the present participle and sometimes
the active participle. Neither name is satisfactory.
The form does not show time and is
used in past tense phrases as well as in present,
as in they were mending the wall. Until recently
it was indifferently active or passive and may
still be understood in a passive sense, as in it
will bear telling, it is worth seeing, use every
man after his deserts and n’ho should escape
whipping?. It is essentially the form of the verb
that refers to an action thought of as in progress
(whether at the time of speaking or at some
other time) and is used with forms of the verb
to be to make the progressive tenses, as in the
box is breaking. See progressive tenses.
353 participles
The second participle is the third form given
in the principal parts of a verb, such as broken
and mended. (See principal parts of a verb.) It
is sometimes called the past participle and sometimes
the passive participle. It is used with
forms of the verb lo have to make the completed
action tenses, as in he has broken the
box (see perfect tenses), and with forms of the
verb to be to make the passive voice, as in Ihe
cup was broken (see passive voice). But the
form itself does not express time and may be
used in speaking of the present, as in wondrous
things of thee are spoken. And it is used in the
completed action tenses with an active meaning,
as in he has broken it. Essentially, the second
participle is the form of the verb that names an
action as compIeted.
The participle having followed by the second
participle of the meaningful verb, as in having
mended, is sometimes called the third participle
or the perfect participle. The word perfect may
be confusing here since older grammarians
called the second participle the perfect, because
it represented completed action. Being followed
by the second participle, as in being mended,
might equally well be called the passive participle,
but as a rule it is not given a name.
Besides being used to form the compound
tenses, both participles may be used as adjectives.
The -ing participles are adjectives in a
squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,
covetous, old sinner. When they stand before
the noun, as here, participles are classifying
words. These, for example, tell us the kind of
old sinner he was. A participle following a noun
is descriptive, as in a covetous old sinner, squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, and so on. See position
of adjectives.
It is sometimes difficult to say whether a present
participle is being used as an adjective or as
part of a progressive verb form. If the preposition
to is used to connect a participle following
a form of to be with an object, as in this was distressing
to her, the participle is certainly an adjective.
If an object follows immediately, as in
this was distressing her, it is part of the verb. If
no object follows at all, either interpretation is
possible. There is very little difference, so far as
meaning goes, between these two uses of the
word.
With the second participle there is a greater
difference in meaning between the adjective and
the verb form. The words cttt, grown, burned,
learned, are all second participles in cut is the
branch that might have grown full straight/ And
burned is Apollo’s laurel-bough/ That sometime
grew within this learned man. Learned is clearly
an adjective and grown part of a verb form, but
cut and burned might be adjectives or might be
part of a passive verb. Most people today would
take them as adjectives. When no form of the
verb to be occurs in a verbal phrase, there is no
question of how the participle is to be interpreted.
It is part of the verb unless it is placed
immediately after the object of the verb, and if
it is placed after the object it is an adjective.