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| Title: | The Joy of Lex |
| Notice: | A Notes File even your grammar could love |
| Moderator: | THEBAY::SYSTEM |
|
| Created: | Fri Feb 28 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1192 |
| Total number of notes: | 42769 |
49.0. "Dangling participles" by GVAEIS::BARTA () Sun Feb 10 1985 20:14
Is there another note on this subject and I haven't found it, I
wonder?
Does anyone else notice "dangling participles", participles going
begging for a subject? There is a very mild example in note 42.0:
> Note #42 -< The fireman doesn't drink tea. >-
>
>This isn't precisely language oriented -- rather, it's logic oriented.
>
>The title refers to those peculiar logic puzzles that GAMES Magazine often
>contains. After giving a small number of clues, you have to determine
>certain facts about the characters. For example, you may be asked to determine
>the occupation, hobby, beverage, etc. of a group of people.
"After giving ..." isn't very bad, because it needs merely to be
changed to "After being given ...". But the common examples are MUCH
worse. (Here, the subject is "you", and "you" did not "give a small
number of clues".) Mostly, there is no possible passive or active
subject anywhere in sight.
I spent 25 or more years of my life never even noticing these things,
and now I can't avoid noticing them. And are they painful! Anyone else?
Gabriel.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 49.1 | | SUPER::KENAH | | Mon Feb 11 1985 11:39 | 7 |
| Gabriel:
My apologies. When I wrote that note (42.0), I realized that the phrasing was
clumsy. I appreciate your pointing out the mistake. I'll try to avoid similar
mistakes in the future.
andrew
|
| 49.2 | | NY1MM::SWEENEY | | Thu Feb 21 1985 22:04 | 14 |
| I think that the book has been closed on correcting young speakers of English
on dangling participles. Only when the antecendent is completely absent or
the sentence contains a humorous amibiguity would it be necessary to correct
a young or learning speaker of English.
"Running to get to her next class before the bell, Jane dropped her books."
"Running to get to her next class before the bell, her books spilled onto the
stairs."
Do I hear anyone saying that the second sentence is poor English? Does anyone
think books can run?
Pat Sweeney
|
| 49.3 | | SOFBAS::TRINWARD | ZAPPA: `read my lips - no MORE taxes' | Fri Jun 14 1991 21:26 | 15 |
| >> "Running to get to her next class before the bell, Jane dropped her books."
>> "Running to get to her next class before the bell, her books spilled onto the
>> stairs."
>> Do I hear anyone saying that the second sentence is poor English? Does anyone
>> think books can run?
I've been trying for YEARS to get writers, friends, et al. to use participles
`correctly'; the best I've done so far is to get them to look at a sentence
like the above, and rewrite it as:
"As she ran to get ..."
- Steve, who_still_hasn't_managed_to_eradicate_"between_you_and_I"_though
|