CaptainM wrote: Please explain the role of -ed and -ing modifiers in this question and in general.

this question is way too general; i'd imagine that any sort of complete answer would be tens of thousands of words long.

nevertheless, as a start, here are two posts about ING modifiers (from another forum).
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p46255
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p47770

It would really be helpful if you could shed some light on how to differentiate between "-ed participle" and "-ed past tense verb"

use context.

if the context indicates that a NOUN *has been* ____ed, or that a NOUN *is being* _____ed, then that's a participle (i.e., it's just a modifier).
e.g.
i wrote a song dedicated to my father.
--> here, the song has been dedicated to my father, so "dedicated" is a participle that works as a modifier.

if the context indicates that a NOUN, itself, actually _____ed (or _____ed another NOUN, if the verb has an object), then it's a verb.
e.g.
i dedicated a song to my father.
--> here, i actually dedicated something (a song), so "dedicated" is a verb.

, and "-ing participle" and "-ing verb".

there's no such thing as a "-ing verb".
-ing forms are either modifiers (= "participles") or nouns (= "gerunds").

you can have -ing as *part* of a verb (i think these are called "progressive" verbs, but i'm not 100% sure), but these are easy to find because they'll be preceded by be/is/are/was/were/etc. (for instance, i am singing a song --> "singing" is not a verb, but "am singing" is.)