Participles Becoming Prepositions--Some Arcane Information for Editors
http://www.uweb.und.nodak.edu/~mary.pringle/Using.pps

Pringle, Mary Margaret
STCTC
2001

Abstract:

In English, some participles have already become prepositions. The author noticed in her work as a technical editor that most of her writers seemed to perceive the participle 'using' as a preposition already although it is not listed as such in the dictionary. The paper gives the evidence and rationale for making such a claim. It offers a window on written language change in progress and celebrates the language user’s ability to make the stolid dialect we call technical writing more vigorous and efficient by turning a participle into a preposition.