A misplaced modifier

Language English Grammar & Usage
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Charlie Jack’s note (especially to sand “aren’t there like a gazillion threads on this topic” man): I didn’t start this thread. And by the way, thank you, Mr. Moderator; you’ve truly kindled the flame of love with this one. :kiss:

Mod’s note: :discodance: One of the perks! As to the post, it was in with a pile of OT stuff but as I imagined the time you put into its delicate and intricate construction, I couldn’t just temp it.

I hope I may be allowed to take about fi minutes of y’all’s time for the purpose of contribuding (or rather attempting to contribute) to a bedder understanding of the madder at hand:

By the old-fashioned grammar rules (at least the American ones), the subject in that clause is the relative pronoun that, which is the second that in the sentence (the first that is a demonstrative adjective). So the question is, what is the antecedent of the pronoun that? In order to say that the antecedent is oceans, island, or any other word but prisoners, one would have to be looking for any excuse to make the writer of the sentence look ridiculous. If I were going to make a case for an error here, I wouldn’t call the error an agreement error. Rather, I would say that the relative clause that begins with that is misplaced. Because the clause that begins with that is functioning adjectivally and intended to modify prisoners, in the old-fashioned prescriptive grammar that I was trained up in, we might call that clause a misplaced modifier. And if I were grading the essays of freshman university students and decided to mark the clause as an error, that’s what I would call it–a misplaced modifier:

–Harbrace College Handbook (9th Edition, 1982 I think), page 545

Section 25a (page 303) of the same handbook reads in pertinent part:

But I wasn’t confused by BigJohn’s clause, so I might not have marked it wrong if I were still a lower-than-whale-s*** adjunct instructor or teaching assistant, and if BigJohn were taking my freshman English class (a state of affairs which, according to some theorists, could actually be in existence right now in a parallel universe). In fact, with all them frosh papers to grade, I might nodda nodiced iddadall.

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[quote=“Charlie Jack”]

I hope I may be allowed to take about fi minutes of y’all’s time for the purpose of contribuding (or rather attempting to contribute) to a bedder understanding of the madder at hand:

By the old-fashioned grammar rules (at least the American ones), the subject in that clause is the relative pronoun that, which is the second that in the sentence (the first that is a demonstrative adjective). So the question is, what is the antecedent of the pronoun that? In order to say that the antecedent is oceans, island, or any other word but prisoners, one would have to be looking for any excuse to make the writer of the sentence look ridiculous. If I were going to make a case for an error here, I wouldn’t call the error an agreement error. Rather, I would say that the relative clause that begins with that is misplaced. Because the clause that begins with that is functioning adjectivally and intended to modify prisoners, in the old-fashioned prescriptive grammar that I was trained up in, we might call that clause a misplaced modifier. And if I were grading the essays of freshman university students and decided to mark the clause as an error, that’s what I would call it–a misplaced modifier:

–Harbrace College Handbook (9th Edition, 1982 I think), page 545

Section 25a (page 303) of the same handbook reads in pertinent part:

Hey are you related to this dude?:

'Cause I was thinking, you know, if you were, why you could just KICK the grammar into your students, man.
And that’d be wicked.

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No, I’m not related to him, but I wish I were. :laughing:

At some American universities, it might be nice if somebody like that were the Head of the Freshman English Division.

In Korea the cram school that I worked in had both adults and children. One of the teachers of adults was a retired soldier in the ROK Army. When the kids got out of class, they were often rowdy and noisy, especially the boys. That retired soldier, man, all he had to do was look at one of those boys, and that boy would immediately straighten up and fly right.

If I had looked at one of them that way, they’d have prob’ly been like, “What the **** are you lookin’ at?” That would probably go about double or triple for at least some male freshman college students in the U.S.

Some folks got it, some folks ain’t, and I’m one of the ones that ain’t. :neutral:

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