misplaced modifiers by alfred taylor 1

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Misplaced Modifiers

By Alfred Taylor


Misplaced Modifiers

The best advice I can give students about modifiers is to use them sparingly. Too many modifiers have the tendency to weaken a piece of writing. They often become crutches for writers preventing them from finding stronger nouns and verbs. Which sentence is stronger?

“The small tan toy dog with a high

pitched bark walked lazily.”

“The yapping Chihuahua loped.”


Misplaced Modifiers

The second sentence is stronger because it creates a clearer word picture in the reader’s mind. A small tan toy dog could be any type of dog from an Affenpinscher to a Yorkshire Terrier, but using its proper name instead of an adjective phrase creates a specific image in the mind of the reader.

“When you find an adjective, kill it,”

Mark Twain.


Misplaced Modifiers

A modifier is a word or phrase that adds meaning to or limits another word. For example: “The grey werewolf wearing a blue shirt is softly walking.” In the example the adjective “grey” is modifying the noun “werewolf.” And the adjective “blue” is modifying the noun “shirt.” The adverb “softly” is modifying the present

participle “walking.”


Misplaced Modifiers

Place the modifier as closely as possible to the word or words it modifies.


Misplaced Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is a modifier that misses its intended target. The position of the modifier in the sentence causes it to modify the wrong word or to not modify any word at all.“Growling and snapping the lady was stalked by the werewolf.” Was the lady growling and snapping?


Misplaced Modifiers

“Growling and snapping the lady was stalked by the werewolf.” In this example, the word “lady” appears to be modified by the words “Growling and Snapping”; however, this makes no logical sense, so the modifiers must be misplaced.“The lady was stalked by the growling and snapping werewolf.” Now “growling and snapping modify the correct word, “werewolf.” Place the modifier as closely to the word it modifies as possible.


Misplaced Modifiers

Writers must use limiting modifiers carefully. Limiting modifiers are words that change the sentence’s meaning depending upon where they are placed. They are words such as: only, not only, just, not just, almost, hardly, nearly, even, exactly, merely, scarcely, and simply.


Misplaced Modifiers

Just Poindexter drank a cola.Poindexter was the only one drinking cola.Poindexter just drank a cola.Poindexter recently drank a cola.Poindexter drank just a cola.One cola was the only thing Poindexter drank.

Each time the limiting modifier “just” was moved the meaning of the sentence changed.


Misplaced Modifiers

Squinting modifiers are modifiers that may modify more than one word or phrase in a sentence.

“She said on Sunday she would call.”

Did she say it on Sunday?

Or is she going to call on Sunday?

We don’t know. The phrase “on Sunday”

could modify “said” or it could modify

“would call.”


Misplaced Modifiers

The squinting modifier is unclear because it is between two nouns, and it could logically modify both of them. To correct a squinting modifier move the modifier closer to the word it modifies.

She said on Sunday she would call. (squinting modifier)

On Sunday she said she would call.

(corrected)

She said she would call on Sunday. (corrected)


Misplaced Modifiers

Sometimes a phrase is used as a modifier. Verbal phrases and prepositional phrases may also act as modifiers. When these phrases are misplaced, the results are at best confusing, at worst humorous.Many cats are killed by automobiles roaming unleashed. “Roaming unleashed” is a misplaced verbal phrase. (Automobiles don’t roam.)


Misplaced Modifiers

Correct these misplaced modifiers by moving them as close to the headword as possible.Many cats are killed by automobiles roaming unleashed. (Misplaced verbal phrase)

Many cats roaming unleashed are killed by automobiles. (corrected)


Misplaced Modifiers

Avoid using excessive modifiers between a subject and its verb. It is best to try and keep the subject and verb as close together as possible to avoid ambiguity.

Poindexter with lust in his eyes and a dream in his heart to fulfill his desire and obtain his obsession drank a cola.

With this sentence by the time the reader gets to the verb, she has forgotten about the subject.


Misplaced Modifiers

The sentence becomes stronger if the subject and the verb are placed together. Poindexter drank a cola with lust in his eyes and a dream in his heart to fulfill his desire and obtain his obsession.Now the prepositional phrases don’t weaken the subject and verb.


Misplaced Modifiers

A split infinitive may be considered a misplaced modifier. An infinitive phrase is the word “to” plus a verb, such as “to go.” When an adverb is injected between the infinitive and its verb, this is called a split infinitive “to boldly go.” In a Latinized language such as Spanish or French, it is grammatically impossible to split an infinitive; however, in English splittingan infinitive isn’t a serious error.


Misplaced Modifiers

An English purist would say “to go boldly.” The rule that makes it a sin to split an infinitive is borrowed from Latin, and English is a Germanic language; hence, the rule doesn’t really apply. So writers may split infinitives as long as they don’t split them so much that the reader gets confused. “To boldly with great pomp and circumstance go.”


Misplaced Modifiers

A dangling modifier is a modifier that does not logically modify anything in the sentence. A dangling modifier is usually created because the sentence lacks a subject. For example, “While driving through the countryside, my dog stuck her head out the window.”


Misplaced Modifiers

“While driving through the countryside, my dog stuck her head out the window.” The modifier “while driving through the countryside” is dangling because it is not attached to a subject, so it becomes attached to the only noun in the sentence “dog.”


Misplaced Modifiers

The easiest way to correct a dangling modifier is to add the missing subject. “While I was driving through the countryside, my dog stuck her head out the window.” Now the modifier is no longer dangling because it is attached to a subject and verb.


Misplaced Modifiers

The best way to avoid misplacing modifiers is to avoid using them; however, when modifiers are used place them as closely to the word they modify as possible.

It may seem that modifiers are monsters to be feared.


Misplaced Modifiers

Doing battle with misplaced modifiers requires careful proofreading and a little grammatical skill.


Misplaced Modifiers

But with a little practice, the monster can be tamed.

The End

misplaced modifiers by alfred taylor 1

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