Dangling participles - and horses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been skimming through a 2012 book by Constance Hale titled Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch – Let verbs power your writing. On page 232 she says:

 

“Wanna know what really tickles a grammar diva? Dangling participles.

 

Remember, participles exist so that verbs can modify nouns. But a participial phrase really needs to cuddle up right next to the noun it is supposed to modify. If it doesn’t, if it drifts away from its noun and cozies up to another one, it becomes a dangling participle. Here’s my all-time favorite example:

 

Did you see the picture of the horses dangling from the ceiling?

 

That writer meant to refer to a picture hanging from the ceiling, but ended up describing a macabre piece of art (a depiction of horses that were in suspended animation).”

 

You also can find an article from American University titled Participle tense & dangling participles that can be downloaded as a two-page pdf. Another example there is:

 

“Having bitten several pedestrians, the owner forcibly muzzled his dog.”

 

which should instead of man bites pedestrians be:

 

“Having bitten several pedestrians, the dog was muzzled by his owner.”

 

There is a NASA publication by Mary K. McCaskill from 1990 titled Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization - A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors (SP-7084) which can be downloaded as a 115-page pdf. Page 26 discusses dangling participles.

 

The image of dangling horses was derived from this horse statue held by a crane at Wikimedia Commons.