Next we will tackle dangling modifiers. A modifier is a word or group of words that describes or qualifies the meaning of another word or group of words. Put simply, modifiers provide more information about the subject or verb in a sentence.
The simplest modifiers are one-word modifiers like adjectives (which describe nouns or pronouns) and adverbs (which describe verbs or other adverbs). Look at the following sentence:
The little girl ran quickly.
The adjective “little” modifies the noun “girl,” and the adverb “quickly” modifies the verb “ran.”
Other elements can also act as modifiers, including infinitive phrases, prepositional phrases, participial phrases, and so forth.
The main point to remember about modifiers is to place them as near as possible to the words they qualify. When modifiers are misplaced, the meaning is distorted, and confusion can result.
One particular kind of misplaced modifier is called a dangling modifier, and it occurs when a modifying phrase seemingly refers to a word other than the one it’s intended to modify.
A dangling modifier is a modifier attached to the wrong noun or pronoun, and it usually occurs at the beginning of a sentence.
Consider this sentence:
Stranded on a desert island, a ship didn’t rescue Alexander Selkirk for five years.
The phrase “Stranded on a desert island” modifies the first noun that follows it–in this case, “ship.” A ship was stranded on a desert island? No, but grammatically that’s what the sentence says.
To correct a sentence containing a dangling modifier, place the noun or pronoun being described next to the modifying word or phrase.
Who or what was “Stranded on a desert island”? Alexander Selkirk. So the correct structure should be:
Stranded on a desert island, Alexander Selkirk wasn’t rescued for five years.
Readers should not have to guess what our meaning is; our grammatical construction should clearly reflect our intended meaning.
In the following presentation, we will review more examples of dangling modifiers and show you how to correct them.