Misplaced Modifier - Definitions and Examples

Lost Modifier s A lost modifier is a word, expression, or condition that doesnt unmistakably identify with the word or expression it is proposed to alter. In prescriptive sentence structure, lost modifiers are typically viewed as blunders. Imprint Lester and Larry Beason call attention to that lost modifiers don't make sentences ungrammatical. Lost modifiers aren't right since they state something the essayist didn't plan to state (McGraw-Hill Handbook, 2012). A lost modifier can generally be remedied by drawing it nearer to the word or expression it ought to depict. See Examples and Observations beneath. Likewise observe: Practice in Avoiding Misplaced Modifiers Models and Observations Plastic packs are a most loved of food merchants as a result of their cost, around 2 pennies for each sack contrasted with 5 pennies for paper. Utilized broadly since the 1970s, tree huggers presently gauge between 500 billion to a trillion packs are delivered yearly worldwide.(Savannah Morning News, January 30, 2008)â€Å"An hour later a tubby man in a wrinkled suit with pale skin strolled in.†(David Baldacci, The Innocent. Excellent Central Publishing, 2012)A Swiss rancher has found a gigantic trove of old Roman coins in his cherry plantation. . . . Weighing around 15kg (33lb), he found the coins subsequent to spotting something sparkling in a molehill.(BBC News, November 19, 2015)Bank laborer attempted to film stripped ladies as they lay in tanning corners on his portable phone.(Headline in the Daily Mail [UK], September 6, 2012)For numerous individuals eating spoonfuls of Marmite consistently would be their most noticeably awful bad dream, yet for St John Skelton it†™s his fantasy work. . . . Regardless of being despised by millions over the world, St John can’t get enough of the stuff and eats it pretty much every day.(Meet the Man Who Earns a Living Eating Marmite. The Sun [UK], April 14, 2012) Princess Beatrice, who is beginning a history degree at Goldsmiths College, London, in the not so distant future, was shot running in the surf on the island of St Barts with her American beau Dave Clark wearing a blue two-piece last month.(Sarah, Duchess of York Defends Princess Beatrices Weight Against Rude Critics. The Daily Telegraph [UK], May 13, 2008)April Dawn Peters, 31, of 2194 Grandview Way, in Cosby, [was] captured Sept. 19, at 10:30 p.m., and accused of exasperated attack after she supposedly hit a man on his head at any rate multiple times with a sledge that she was engaging in sexual relations with.(Newport [Tenn.] Plain Talk, September 22, 2012)And when upon your modest bosom I layMy wearied head, more delicate than eiderdown.(William Nathan Stedman)They just said it will rain on the radio.(Tiger comic strip)You are free to visit the graveyard where acclaimed Russian arrangers, craftsmen, and journalists are covered every day, aside from on Thursdays.(in a manual for a Russian Orthodox religious community) Antiquarians have been continued speculating over cases [that] Dr James Barry, Inspector General of Military Hospitals, was in truth a lady for more than 140 years.(The Daily Telegraph [UK], March 5, 2008)One of three sisters, Hilda’s father was a butcher who ran four shops in Oldham.(Tot of Sherry Keeps Hilda Going! Oldham Evening Chronicle [UK], August 20, 2010)Her just full-time paid representative is a charming young lady with a nose ring named Rebecca, who sits at the front desk.(reprinted in The New Yorker)She gave out brownies to youngsters enclosed by Tupperware.(reprinted in The Revenge of Anguished English, by Richard Lederer)After being busted on sedate charges in Los Angeles a month ago, a government judge will choose Friday whether to revoke his probation and send the rapper back to prison.(Rapper T.I. Talks Man off Ledge. Record, October 14, 2010)Comedian Russell Brand uncovered he had sex with model Sophie Coady during a High Court hearing on Monday.(Russell Bra nd Confesses in Court . . .. The Daily Mail [UK], December 24, 2013) Safires Bloopie Awards Never has the opposition for the Most Egregiously Misplaced Modifier Bloopie been more smoking. Among the candidates:Lands End, the Direct Merchants, on their washing clothing: We can fit you in a bathing suit that fits and flattersright via telephone! The bathing suit compliments via telephone? . . . Better to swing the finish of the sentence to the front, where the pronoun to be changed can be discovered: Right via telephone, we can fit you etc.And heres a succulent one from Minute Maid: Help todays U.S. Olympic Hopefuls become tomorrows Olympic Champions by buying Minute Maid Quality Products. Competitors don't become tomorrows champs by buying anything; swing the end around to the start and append it to a you: By buying . . . you can help etc.The champ in this classification? The envelope, please: Its Honda Motor Cars, with its fiercely turning guarantee, While satisfying to your eye, the air ignoring and around the body scarcely sees it. Air isn't satisfying to your eye; the veh icles body should come following the changing expression. Consequently: While satisfying to your eye, the body is not really seen by the air disregarding and around it. That plan would not bode well, either, however in any event the modifier would be appended to the privilege noun.(William Safire, On Language: The Bloopie Awards. The New York Times, May 17, 1992) Tricky Modifiers Certain modifiers are tricky; they slide into an inappropriate situation in the sentence. The most perilous are just, nearly, effectively, even, just, about, simply, and consistently. No: They nearly worked five years on that framework. Indeed: They worked very nearly five years on that framework. When all is said in done, these tricky descriptors ought to show up not long before the terms they alter. (E. H. Weiss, 100 Writing Remedies. Greenwood, 1990) James Thurber on the Placement ofOnly Where to utilize just in a sentence is a debatable inquiry, probably the mootest inquiry in all talk. The idealist will say that the articulation: He just passed on a week ago is off base, and that it ought to be: He kicked the bucket just a week ago. The perfectionists conflict is that the primary sentence, whenever did to a characteristic end, would give us something like this: He just kicked the bucket a week ago, he didnt do whatever else, that is everything he did. It isnt a characteristic end, in any case, since no one would state that and on the off chance that anyone did it is probably going to prompt stepping of feet and applauding, in light of the fact that it is one of those singy-songy articulations which set a specific sort of individual to acting boisterous and getting unmanageable. It is better just to release the articulation, it is possible that single direction or the other, on the grounds that, all things considered, this specific sentence is of no significance wit h the exception of in situations where one is breaking the news to a mother. In such cases one should start with: Mrs. Gormley, your child has had a mishap, or: Mrs. Gormley, your child is slightly below average, and afterward lead up tenderly to: He passed on just last week.The most ideal way is frequently to preclude just and utilize some other articulation. In this manner, rather than saying: He just passed on a week ago, one could state: It was not, at this point prior than keep going Thursday that George L. Wodolgoffing turned into a holy messenger. Also, this is progressively express and disposes of the chance of a misconception with regards to who died.(James Thurber, Our Own Modern English Usage: Only and One. The New Yorker, February 23, 1929. Republished in The Owl in the Attic and Other Perplexities. Harper Brothers, 1931) Elocution: MIS-plast MOD-I-FI-er