Linguist Forum
Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: cavertronix on July 03, 2017, 08:18:27 AM
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How do I identify dangling particles?
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What's a dangling particle? Do you mean dangling participle, as in a dangling modifier? Or maybe a particle used similarly?
See these links:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/597/1/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangling_modifier
Be aware though that "dangling" is a matter of style rather than syntax in the strict sense of linguistic research. So there may not be an exact/consistent answer for it.
In short, a dangling modifier is one that is far away from the thing it modifies:
Standing in the room, I saw him over there.
If he is the one standing in the room, that is dangling, because it is too far removed.
But since it's a question of style (and not necessarily an error or really a grammatical problem, just potentially confusing!), "identifying" them is just a matter of judgment.