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Originally Posted by Dan Davenport
This is without a doubt the strangest controversy one of my reviews has ever stirred up.  |
Ugh. Is this thread actually happening? This is horrible.
Gerunds modify a verb into an
noun by adding
-ing.
Gamers are delighted by the rolling of dice.
Participles are the usage of a verb as
adjective, ending in
-ing for present participles and usually ending in
-ed (depends on the verb) for past participles.
Punched in the face, the boxer got a nosebleed.
Passive voice is when the subject is acted upon by the verb. Current grammatical aesthetics discourage this usage in favor of the active voice.
The store was looted by burglars.
The usage in question refers to none of these things. "The Shifted" is an example of a
substantive.
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Substantive is the technical term for a word or group of words acting as a noun. Since modern grammar is more concerned with the way words function in a sentence than with part-of-speech designations in a dictionary, it's a little different from the conventional understanding of noun, but it's very close. Virtually all nouns are substantives; so are pronouns like he, she, it, and they. It can also include adjectives if they're used "absolutely" — the homeless, for instance, or the wicked.
Guide to Grammar and Style, Jack Lynch
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