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Post by Chicago Jake on Jul 10, 2005 0:54:28 GMT -6
A participle is a verb ending in "ing". A dangling participle is a participle that doesn't modify the subject of the sentence in which it finds itself. Is this a problem? Some say yeah, some say nay. Here are some examples:
Trying to meet my Friday deadline, my PC suddenly decided to stop working.
Was the PC trying to meet the deadline? Probably not! But that's what the sentence implies.
Riding down the street on my bicycle, a dog knocked me over.
Who was riding the bicycle? The freaking dog? I doubt it!! But that is what the construction, strictly interpreted, is telling us.
Some folks would say, fuck it, you KNOW what I mean, stop being such a dweeb about it! Others would say, recast the sentence so the proper modifiers modify the proper antecedents, you fucking pinhead!!
What say YOU?........Jake
P.S. - Chris, did I get this right? We're getting beyond my area of expertise here.
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Post by Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III on Jul 10, 2005 21:35:40 GMT -6
Trying to f*ck Jake, my PC quit working! .........Bob (wondering about one very worried Jake!  ) |
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Post by Chicago Jake on Jul 10, 2005 22:12:39 GMT -6
Admit it, you're learning something here!......Jake
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Post by Merlot Joe on Jul 11, 2005 11:42:23 GMT -6
Some folks would say, fuck it, What say YOU?........Jake Yeap, fuck it. Joe. |
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Post by Lady Irie on Jul 11, 2005 18:46:51 GMT -6
So, would that be similar to what we saw this week at Sandy Hook? Creativity at it's finest; a 15 foot kidney shaped hot tub was carved out of sand with King Neptune spitting water into the tub part which held 8 or so people. (Not relevant to the question, but a cool visual.)
Pool rules were posted and it read with rule #7 stating there was to be "no eating or drinking in the pool (except for Karen)". Hedonites, being what they are instantly wanted to know who "Karen" was and if she could be eaten. "Karen" identified herself and sternly replied she would re-word the rules as it was only she that was allowed to eat or drink in the pool. No sense of humor, just bad grammar, or a more interesting example of this English lesson? ;D
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Jul 13, 2005 15:39:13 GMT -6
A participle is a verb ending in "ing". How is that different from a gerund? |
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Post by jdmcowan on Jul 13, 2005 22:16:24 GMT -6
A participle is a verb ending in "ing". How is that different from a gerund? A gerund is a verb ending in -ing being used as a noun. "Her posting was becoming a problem." A participle is a verb being used as an adjective (or in an adjectival phrase) and can have endings other than -ing. "The archived post was interesting." "The walking machine stumbled." "He was hooked on classics." "Looking at the clock, he decided it was time to go to bed." A dangling participle (the word dangling, here, is a participle) is one that doesn't modify a noun which actually appears in the sentence. In the last sentence of the previous paragraph, "looking," modifies, "he." (He was looking at the clock.) But in the sentence, "reaching the top of the mountain, the view was spectacular," you may assume who or what is the noun that reached the top, but the noun or pronoun does not actually appear anywhere in the sentence. In one of Jake's original examples, "Riding down the street on my bicycle, a dog knocked me over," if you assume that Jake was riding the bicycle, then the participle is dangling since there is no noun in the sentence representing Jake. Therefore, we are left to assume that the only noun in the sentence is the one to which the adjectival phrase actually applies and we arrive at the conclusion that the dog was riding the bicycle. (Modify) Looking back again, this is not officially a dangling participle. Jake does appear in the sentence as "me". True dangling participles are rare. However, when you place the adjectival phrase directly adjecent to the wrong noun (as in the riding/dog example), some humorous images can, indeed, be produced. (/modify) Sunlovers example was not actually a dangling participle just a noun placed where it would be ambiguous as to whether it was the subject or object and so open to interpretation. It would have been even better as, "No eating anything in the pool (except Karen)." The addition of an object makes it even more likely that the excepted noun is also an object. But enough ramblings from this language buff... Jeremy |
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Jul 14, 2005 8:13:19 GMT -6
Good post, Jeremy. Thanks for the clarification. Consider yourself Exalted.
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