One of the takeaways from last week’s episode of Linguists’ Forum is the emphasis on the placement of the participle clause near the subject it modifies in a sentence. This is necessary to avoid instances of dangling modifiers. After reading the article, one might have asked, “What are dangling modifiers?” The word “dangling,” modifying “modifiers” in the concept, does not necessarily mean hanging loosely or swinging freely in this context. It is part of a sentence that does not have an expected grammatical relation with the rest of the words in the sentence in which it occurs. While a modifier provides more information about some other word, phrase or clause in a sentence, a dangling modifier does not have a clear grammatical element (a word, phrase or clause) that it describes (modifies) in the sentence in which it occurs.
Example
“Fighting the bandits,” the gun dropped from his hand.
The modifier in this sentence is “Fighting the bandits.” As indicated in the analysis below, the part of the sentence it modifies is not clear.
Modifier: Fighting the bandits
What it modifies: the gun
The interpretation is problematic: It suggests that the gun was fighting the bandits.
Correct Usage: The gun dropped from his hand as he was fighting the bandits.
Wrong use of modifiers can also occur if the modifiers are misplaced. In this case, the modifier is separated/far from the word, phrase or clause it modifies in the sentence.
Example
* During the reconciliation meeting, the Chairman advised the “warring” party’s factions to embrace peace (This implies that a party that is engaging in a war has factions)
Instead of
* During the reconciliation meeting, the Chairman advised the party’s “warring” factions to embrace peace (This implies that a party has some factions that are fighting one another).
This suggests that the modifier “warring” actually modifies “factions” and not “party’s” and should not be separated from it (factions).
In some cases, a modifier can logically modify more than one word or a group of words in a given sentence. That means that one needs to be very careful in placing the modifier beside the word or group of words that is actually modified to help the reader interpret the writer’s intention correctly.
Example
* The police “only” arrested the landlord and his son.
(The modifier is an adverb. It modifies the verb “arrested.” It suggests that the only thing the police did was arresting the landlord and his son.)
* The police arrested “only” the landlord and his son.
(The modifier is an adjective. It modifies the noun phrase “the landlord and his son.” It suggests that the only individuals that the police arrested were the landlord and his son.)
At this point, the reader of this article should rewrite the following sentences to correct the wrongly used modifiers in them.
1. The man narrated the story to us that his father had told him.
2. To get rid of rats in your room, the room must be swept daily.
3. Recruiting lecturers, the university with experience is to teach the new courses.
You may wish to compare your answers with the following sentences.
1. The man narrated the story “that his father had told him” to us (It modifies “the story,” not “us”).
2. “To get rid of rats in your room,” you must sweep the room daily (The subject is “you,” not “the room”).
3. The university is recruiting lecturers “with experience” to teach the new course (“with experience” modifies “lecturers,” not “the university.”
Takeaways
1. Modifiers should not be used without including the words or groups of words they modify in the sentences where they occur.
2. Modifiers should not be far/separated from the words or groups of words they modify to avoid changes in the intended meaning of the sentences in which they occur.
3. In a situation where a modifier can logically modify more than one word in a sentence, one must be careful to specify which of the words one is modifying to avoid ambiguity.
$. You can fix a sentence with a dangling modifier by changing the main part of the sentence so that it begins with the word/group of words it actually modifies (e.g., “Studying his textbooks, ‘the student’ discovered the new theory” instead of “Studying his textbooks, the new theory was discovered”). You can also change the dangling modifier to a subordinate clause that has a subject and a main verb (e.g., “Since ‘the woman’ ‘had paid’ for the tools, she can use them” instead of “Having paid for the tools, they can be used.”
Lateef Iyanda Kugbayi, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of English Language
Zamfara State University
Talata Mafara
lateefkugbayi19@gmail.com/+2347032985052