Gryphon
Dr. Spots
Dangling Modifiers
Posted by Gryphon on June 27, 2009
- Having been thrown in the air, the dog caught the stick.
- Smashed flat by a passing truck, Big Dog sniffed at what was left of a half-eaten hamburger.
- Was the dog thrown into the air before or after the stick, or was it simultaneous?
- Were they both airborne at the time of the catch or had one or both of them landed?
- Were both indeed thrown into the air, or just one? And, which one?
- How was it biologically possible for Big Dog to sniff a half eaten hamburger in his truck-flattened condition?
- How did the hamburger escape the fate of Big Dog, if indeed it did?
Things like this bug me.
The offending sentences were copied from elsewhere. The questions are my own.
and we thank you for your support.
g
Mel Ancholy said
In the first bullet point it is just a dog but in the second it is a Big dog. Is it the same dog?
Gryphon said
Big Dog is his name, it would seem.
Mel Ancholy said
I have too much ADD going on at the moment to answer this question… I hope I can muster up enough dopamine later so I can take a stab at it.
Gryphon said
It could be the same dog. That much is unclear like whether it was he or the hamburger or both that were flattened. The first sentence says it was a dog. The second sentence does not say if it was the same dog but states it as such that “Big Dog” was the dog’s name…..
Ahmnodt Heare said
The poor dog.
Gryphon said
And I am thinking that if it was Big Dog that was flattened by the truck that they probably need to change his name. “Flat Dog” comes to mind.
Ram Venkatararam said
Smashed flat by a passing truck, Big Dog sniffed at what was left of a half-eaten hamburger….?
Isn’t that a William Carlos Williams poem?