Grammar Lesson: Courtesy of Gypsy Scholar
My friend Kevin Kim recently asked the internet community at large to identify the error in the following sentence:
With razor-toothed suckers and eyes the size of dinner plates, tales of this creature have been around since ancient times.All of Kevin's readers immediately identified the mistake, i.e., a dangling modifier: "With razor-toothed suckers and eyes the size of dinner plates . . ." However, I went them all one better and explained this error for readers unfamiliar with the concept of a "dangling" modifier:
As noted above, it's a dangling modifier, so it needs to be attached to a subject that dangles. Tales don't dangle, or shouldn't, though they can leave the reader dangling.And I did not explain this for naught. One reader responded:
The problem, obviously, is the spelling of the subject: "tales." It ought to be "tails." Now, the subject also dangles, and therefore fits the dangling modifier.
The sentence describes a prehistoric monster with a nondecomposable, regenerating tail armed with razor-toothed suckers and littered with eyes the size of dinner plates! Not the sort of critter to sneak up on . . .
aye. Yeah the 'tales' :) easy mistake.Easy, yes, and consequently so often slips us by . . .
3 Comments:
umsipiHow about:
"Tales of this creature, equipped with razor-toothed suckers and eyes the size of dinner plates, have been around since ancient times...?"
Must be some kind of squid.
Cran
How did umsipi get into my text?
Life is a mystery.
Cran
Uncle Cran, good to have you back, and your mysteries, too.
Jeffery Hodges
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