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A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that lacks the word it is supposed to modify. This occurs when a clause refers to a subject missing in the following clause. It can be corrected by rephrasing the sentence. A leaning modifier can also occur if the modified sentence or word is unclear.
A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that essentially lacks the word or phrase it is supposed to refer to or modify. This frequently occurs when a clause is used to refer to a subject which is then missing in the clause following it. For example, in the sentence “Running through the storm, my hat flew off,” the first sentence modifies the subject of the sentence. A dangling modifier occurs in this example as the second clause indicates that the subject is “my hat”, meaning that the hat is apparently running through a storm.
One of the most common ways a dangling modifier can occur is when the subject in a sentence is inappropriate. This type of sentence consists of two clauses: an independent clause and a dependent clause. The independent one can be separated from the other and form a complete sentence, while the dependent one must have the other to make sense. In this example, “Running through the storm” is a dependent clause since it has no subject, while “my hat has blown off” is an independent clause.
The dangling modifier occurs because the dependent clause only makes sense with a subject of the other clause to be modified. There must be a subject who is “weathering in the storm”. The independent clause, however, has a subject, “my hat,” which doesn’t make sense with the first part of the sentence. This creates a dangling modifier, as the first clause is left without a subject to create logical coherence within the sentence. Simply rephrasing the sentence like “Running through the storm, I lost my hat” or “While running through the storm, my hat flew off,” corrects this.
A sentence that has a dangling modifier can usually be fixed with a simple rewording to introduce the appropriate subject for the modifier. Another example could be: “Walking slowly through the bushes, the zebra remained unaware of the oncoming danger.” In this sentence, the zebra appears to be “walking slowly through the bushes,” since she is the subject of the independent clause. Again, this dangling modifier can be corrected with the addition of an appropriate subject: “Walking slowly across the brush, the lion crept up on an unsuspecting zebra.”
A leaning modifier can also be created in a sentence without this structure, if the modified sentence or word is unclear. One of the most famous examples of this is a joke by the comedian Groucho Marx: “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.” This quip is based on the fact that the sentence “in my pajamas” logically refers to the subject “I”, but can grammatically refer to the object of the sentence “an elephant”.
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