A misuse of the participial phrase?

Molly   Wed May 07, 2008 10:07 am GMT
Why is this considered a misuse of the participial phrase?

My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill. —Goldsmith.
guest   Wed May 07, 2008 1:18 pm GMT
To me, I can note two things that might be considered incorrect usage:

1). The placement of the phrase, at the end

2). And the seemingly unconnectedness of it to the main clause--what does the phrase modify???
Guest   Wed May 07, 2008 4:44 pm GMT
Another problem, is the 3 possible things that might have given the 100 pounds, none seem plausible: farm, acres, land. Perhaps Goldsmith gave the 100 pounds?

Other famous examples of this kind of construction:


Bouncing down the street and rolling into the storm drain, John's eyes spotted the ball.

Wondering irresolutely what to do next, the clock struck ten.
Guest   Wed May 07, 2008 6:02 pm GMT
<<And the seemingly unconnectedness of it to the main clause--what does the phrase modify??? >>

Seems clearly connect, IMO.
Pos   Wed May 07, 2008 6:04 pm GMT
<<Bouncing down the street and rolling into the storm drain, John's eyes spotted the ball. >>


Only the most pedantic or idiotic would misread that sentence. C'mon!
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 1:00 am GMT
It seems that John's eyes bounced down the street, rolled into the storm drain, and then spotted the ball.
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 7:24 am GMT
<It seems that John's eyes bounced down the street, rolled into the storm drain, and then spotted the ball. >

What an idiotic reading.
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 7:36 am GMT
It's possible. There was a cartoon in the 90's that featured a character with eyes that were separate from his body. He often dropped his eyes and they bounced off.
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 9:05 am GMT
<<<It's possible.>>>

Anything is possible, but langauge teaching should deal with what is PROBABLE.
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 10:49 am GMT
<<What an idiotic reading.>>

I think the problem here is that when you are reading the sentence, the first image that pops into your head is the rolling and bouncing eyeballs, at least until you reach the end of the sentence.

The obvious way to avoid this problem is to write it as:

"John's eyes spotted the ball bouncing down the street and rolling into the storm drain." In this case, the clause is just misplaced (or placed less than optimally).

Fixing the other example requires the addition of the real subject for the clause:

"While Xxxx was wondering irresolutely what to do next, the clock struck ten."