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Misuse of the participial phrase


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Misuse of the participial phrase #1 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 7:52 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Why is this considered a misuse of the participial phrase?

My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill. —Goldsmith.
Molly
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Misuse of the participial phrase #2 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 8:25 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

May I ask, Molly, who has given a hundred pounds?
Haihao
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Misuse of the participial phrase #3 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 8:42 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Haihao wrote:
May I ask, Molly, who has given a hundred pounds?


The farm owner?
Molly
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Misuse of the participial phrase #4 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 8:51 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

If so, the misuse should be of the subject 'My farm', which is also considered as the subject of the participial phrase.
Haihao
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Misuse of the participial phrase #5 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 9:01 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Haihao wrote:
If so, the misuse should be of the subject 'My farm', which is also considered as the subject of the participial phrase.


How could anyone think that the farm had given 100 pounds?
Molly
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Misuse of the participial phrase #6 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 9:19 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

That's where the "misuse" is, Molly.
Haihao
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Misuse of the participial phrase #7 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 10:29 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Haihao wrote:
That's where the "misuse" is, Molly.


I don't understand. Can you please be more direct?
Molly
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Misuse of the participial phrase #8 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 18:44 pm   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Your sentence has what is known as a 'dangling participle', Molly.
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/d.html
.
Yankee
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Misuse of the participial phrase #9 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 18:52 pm   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Unfortunatunatelly,in my native language people sometimes make the same mistake (because we have participles as well), and to me it always sounded weird and I could not and still cannot understand how it is possible for a native Russian speaker to make such mistake.
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Misuse of the participial phrase #10 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 18:55 pm   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

lost_soul wrote:
Unfortunatunatelly,
Now, that was a mouthhhhfullllllll! Laughing

PS
What happened to your 'signature', Alex?
Yankee
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Misuse of the participial phrase #11 (permalink) Wed May 07, 2008 20:15 pm   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Yankee wrote:
Your sentence has what is known as a 'dangling participle', Molly.
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/d.html
.


Ah, right. Thanks.
Molly
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Misuse of the participial phrase #12 (permalink) Thu May 08, 2008 0:10 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Baskervill and Sewell, who also quote Goldsmith, and pose a similar question (see here), provide this explanation:

"The trouble is, in the sentences first quoted, that the main subject of the sentence is not the same word that would be the subject of the participle, if this were expanded into a verb."

(I find that separation of "is" and "that" disconcerting.)

MrP
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Misuse of the participial phrase #13 (permalink) Thu May 08, 2008 5:37 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Yankee wrote:
lost_soul wrote:
Unfortunatunatelly,
Now, that was a mouthhhhfullllllll! Laughing


Dam it ! I knew from the onset there was something wrong with that word - it seemed unusually long to me Smile

Yankee wrote:
PS
What happened to your 'signature', Alex?


I don't know. In my profile it says "always attach my signature", but in some cases it is not attached. And on top of that I cannot see the "include my signature" check box at the bottom of the textbox where I type my posts. I cant quite put my finger on what's wrong... Confused

Maybe, Torsten can shed some light on the matter...

By the way, does the phrase "have class" mean "to be a pillar of society, to behave in society" ?
Lost_Soul
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Misuse of the participial phrase #14 (permalink) Thu May 08, 2008 6:10 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Hi Alex

I got a nice little gift from one of my ESL groups, and I liked it, so I decided to make up a new avatar that looked like it. It's a play on words (as I'm sure you already understand).
See definitions 3c and 5 here. Very Happy
.
.
By the way, I can see your 'signature' in your last post.
.
Yankee
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Misuse of the participial phrase #15 (permalink) Thu May 08, 2008 6:38 am   Misuse of the participial phrase
 

Quote:
Baskervill and Sewell, who also quote Goldsmith, and pose a similar question (see here), provide this explanation:


I've seen there, but didn't understand it.

Quote:
(I find that separation of "is" and "that" disconcerting.)


Yes, I was going to post that one in a new thread. Hmm...

How about here?

I find, when drunk, that I'm not able to walk straight.
I find that, when drunk, I'm not able to walk straight.
I find that when drunk I'm not able to walk straight.
Molly
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017

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