MODIFIERS

MODIFIERS

A word or group of words that describes or limits a verb, noun, adjective, oradverb.  Modifiers applied to nouns are adjectives. Modifiers applied to verbsor adjectives are     adverb Those that are applied to adverbs themselves arealso called  adverbs.

To modify is to change slightly, so a modifier is anything that makes this change. Modifiers are popular in grammar land, but you could say that chocolate is a mood modifier, for example. An editor, who alters a few sentences, can be described as a modifier of the original manuscript. In the world of science, a modifier is a kind of gene that changes the effect of another gene. Modifier comes from the Latin word modificare, "to limit or restrain."

MISPLACED MODIFIERS

A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the word it modifies / describes.

Because of the separation, sentences with this error often sound awkward, ridiculous, or confusing.  Furthermore, they can be downright illogical.

Examples of Misplaced Modifiers

Sentences would be pretty boring without modifiers to provide excitement and intrique. Would you rather read a sentence with modifiers that says "Hoping to win friends and influence people, the award-winning new celebrity handed out shiny red Porsches at the exciting awards show" or "The celebrity handed out Porsches."

Purpose of Modifiers

When modifiers are misplaced or put in the wrong place, things can get quite confusing! Just imagine if the sentence read:

"Hoping to win friends and influence people, porsches red and shiny handed out a celebrity new."

This second sentence seems farfetched but, misplaced modifiers do commonly occur.

A modifier adds detail or limits or changes the meaning of another word or phrase. For example:

·         Happy

·         Pretty

·         Silly

·         Crazy

·         Hopeful

·         Fast

·         Slow

·         Very

·         Much

·         Many

You can identify a modifier by its function in the sentence- is it providing information, adding detail or describing something else? If so, it is probably a modifier.

Placing Modifiers Correctly

Once you have identified a modifier, you need to identify the person, place or thing that it is modifying. Modifiers usually have to accompany the thing they are modifying or go as close to it as possible.

Adjective Modifiers

Adjectives typically go before the words they are modifying, or after with helping verbs. For example:

·         The pretty girl

·         The girl was pretty.

In the first example, pretty is an adjective modifying the noun girl. In the second example, was is a helping verb and prettyis again an adjective modifying girl.

Adverb Modifiers

Adverbs can go before or after the thing they are modifying, depending on what exactly is it they are modifying.  For example:

·         The very pretty girl

·         He ran quickly

In the first example, the adverb very is modifying the adjective pretty which is modifying the noun girl. In the second example, the adverb quickly is modifying the verb ran.

When you have a single adjective or adverb, misplaced modifiers rarely occur since they would immediately sound incorrect. However, when a modifying phrase is used, misplaced modifiers become more common.

Confusion of Misplaced Modifiers

Like adjectives or adverbs, modifying phrases must accompany or go as close as possible to the thing they are modifying. If they don't, a misplaced modifier occurs.

Here are some examples of misplaced modifiers and corrections:

Example #1

Misplaced modifier:

·         Eagerly awaiting her birthday, Mary's presents were all picked up and admired by Mary many times throughout the course of the day.

Here, this sentence makes it seem as though Mary's presents were eagerly awaiting Mary's birthday. Since presents can't exhibit the emotion of feeling eager, it is unlikely that this modifier is written correctly. The most logical explanation is thatMary was eagerly awaiting her own birthday.

Correction: The modifier should be modifying Mary and the sentence should be rewritten:

·         Eagerly awaiting her birthday, Mary picked up and admired her presents many times throughout the day.

Example #2

Misplaced modifier:

·         Tired of all of the nights in hotels, Mitch's delight was felt by Mitch when his boss finally said he didn't have to travel anymore.

Here, Mitch's delight is being modified by the phrase tired of all of the nights in hotels. Unfortunately, Mitch's delight can't be tired of this because Mitch's delight isn't a person. Instead, it is more likely that Mitch himself is tired.

Correction: We can correct this sentence by moving the proper subject next to the modifier:

·         Tired of all of the nights in hotels, Mitch was delighted when his boss finally said he didn't have to travel anymore.

Example #3

Misplaced modifier:

·         She served sandwiches to the children on paper plates.

Correction:

·         She served the children sandwiches on paper plates.

·         e reported that three offices were stolen.

Know how to fix a misplaced modifier.

To fix the error, locate the modifier next to the appropriate word:

We anxiously watched the weather report for information about the hurricane churning in the Atlantic Ocean.

Raymond wore his one collared shirt, which was unfortunately stained with yellow mustard, to the job interview.

Professor Jones waited for the slacker student who was late with another essay.

DANGLING MODIFIERS

A dangling modifier (a specific case of which is the dangling participle) is an ambiguous grammatical construct, whereby a grammaticalmodifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended, or with no particular word at all.

Examples of Dangling Modifiers

A modifier does exactly what it sounds like: it changes, alters, limits, or adds more info to something else in the sentence. A modifier is considered dangling when the sentence isn't clear about what is being modified. For example, "The big" doesn't make sense without telling what is big which leaves "big" as a dangling modifier; but, "the big dog" is a complete phrase.

How Modifiers Dangle

Since a modifier has to more information about something, by definition that means the something it is modifying or limiting has to exist. That means, of course, that you can't just say The happy. If you did, people would immediately ask you: "the happy what?" That missing what is the thing being modified.

It seems pretty obvious and intuitive when written in a simple sentence, and it seems hard to imagine a situation in which a modifier would be left dangling. However, modifiers don't always have to be simple words or phrases like happy, and sentences aren't always simple.

Phrases can also act as modifiers, providing additional information about something else in the sentence. When this occurs, and when sentences become more complex, dangling modifiers can sometimes exist and get lost in the complexity of the language.

Correcting Dangling Modifiers

·         Hoping to garner favor, my parents were sadly unimpressed with the gift.

Problem: This is a dangling modifier because we do not know who or what was hoping to garner favor. It is unlikely that the parents were hoping to garner favor, since they wouldn't have given an unimpressive gift to themselves.

Correction: This sentence could be corrected by adding a proper subject, or identifying the person who was hoping to win over the parents