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VOA日常语法2022--What Are Dangling Participles?

时间:2022-05-19 07:32:43

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(单词翻译)

What Are Dangling1 Participles?

In today's Everyday Grammar, we will explore a common issue in grammar classes: dangling participles. These structures can reduce clarity in communication.

You will learn about how to identify and correct dangling participles.

Let's start with a few important terms and ideas.

What is a participle?

Imagine you walk into a small shop that sells sodas3 or sweet drinks. You see it has Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, among others. The drinks contain many of the same things — carbonated water, sugar, or high fructose corn syrup4 — but they also have different flavors and colors.

Participles are in some ways like soda2.

But instead of carbonated water or sugar, participles have the verb as their raw ingredient. Because they come from verbs, participles are known as verbals.

Much like our sodas, participles come in a few different flavors: present and past. The present participle is the verb with an –ing ending. The past has a few special flavors of its own such as the –ed or –en ending, among others.

Participles are verbals, but they often act as adjectives. In other words, they give extra information about nouns or pronouns.

Consider this example:

The barking dog woke up the whole neighborhood.

Here, the participle "barking" acts like an adjective that describes the noun "dog."

Introductory participles

Sometimes participles come in phrases – groups of words that act together in a sentence.

One common way participial phrases appear is as an introduction to a sentence. Consider this example:

Barking loudly, the dog woke up the whole neighborhood.

In this case, the participial phrase is "barking loudly." The subject of the participial phrase is also the subject of the sentence: the noun "dog."

But what happens when the subject of the participle and the subject of the sentence are different?

Our earlier example would be something like this:

Barking loudly, the whole neighborhood woke up.

This example is known as a dangling participle. The subject of the participle "barking loudly" is missing. The subject of this sentence is "the whole neighborhood." But it is not the whole neighborhood that is barking – such a situation would be truly bizarre!

So, a dangling participle is a kind of verb that does not have a stated subject. The dangling participle has lost its point of connection with the sentence.

Comparison

Our dangling participle is in some ways like a rock climber.

Imagine a rock climber is going up a steep cliff. The rock climber needs points of connection - hands and feet – with the rock. If the rock climber loses these points of connection, he or she falls and hangs or dangles5 in space on a safety rope.

Such a situation is uncomfortable for the climber, and for people watching.

The same is true for a dangling participle. It has lost its points of connection with the sentence and is hanging in space. The reader or listener might not know what is being communicated.

But our rock climbing comparison can also present an answer. To succeed in the climb, the rock climber must stay close to the rock and keep points of connection.

Participial phrases - and other structures that act like adjectives -are generally clearest when they stay close to the noun they are describing. The greater the distance between the participial phrase and the noun, the greater the chance it will become a dangling participle.

Fixing common problems

Common sources of dangling participles include sentences with "there" or "it" in the subject position, as well as sentences that use the passive voice.

For example:

Having moved the bookshelves and bed, there was no room for the desk.

In such a case, one way to clarify the point is to expand the participial phrase into a full clause. The updated sentence could be something like this:

After we moved the bookshelves and bed, there was no room for the desk.

Closing thoughts

In today's report, you learned about a few images that connect with participles, participial phrases, and dangling participles: a soda shop, a barking dog, and a rock climber. While all of these comparisons have their limitations, they can help you imagine situations and connect grammar to life. Such connections are important for helping6 you remember information.

But keep in mind, participles and participial phrases are a large subject. Today's report offered a few thoughts. There is much more that could be said. We will explore more details about participles and participial phrases in future reports.

Words in This Story

dangling participle – n. (grammar) a participle meant to modify a noun that is not actually present

verbal – n. (grammar) of, relating to, or formed from a verb

bizarre – adj. very unusual or strange

clause – n. (grammar) a part of a sentence that has its own subject and verb


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1 dangling 4930128e58930768b1c1c75026ebc649     
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口
参考例句:
  • The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果,那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
  • The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上,摇晃着他们的双腿。
2 soda cr3ye     
n.苏打水;汽水
参考例句:
  • She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
  • I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。
3 sodas c10ddd4eedc33e2ce63fa8dfafd61880     
n.苏打( soda的名词复数 );碱;苏打水;汽水
参考例句:
  • There are plenty of sodas in the refrigerator. 冰箱里有很多碳酸饮料。 来自辞典例句
  • Two whisky and sodas, please. 请来两杯威士忌苏打。 来自辞典例句
4 syrup hguzup     
n.糖浆,糖水
参考例句:
  • I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
  • Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。
5 dangles ebaf6b5111fd171441fab35c8a22ff8a     
悬吊着( dangle的第三人称单数 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口
参考例句:
  • A kite dangles from a telephone wire. 一只风筝悬挂在电话线上晃来晃去。
  • Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. 她一只手耷拉在一边,闪耀着珠宝的寒光。
6 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

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