ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

This is a question I came across at Yahoo Knowledge.  There seems to be some confusion around this and some incorrect concepts being spread.    

Question:

She came down the hill singing a song.
請問這是分詞嗎?為何不是she came down the hill ,singing a song.
我不懂singing直接加ing是為什麼?

while walking in the park, I met him.
我知道分詞中有時若是語意不清楚,連接詞不必省
但這樣wh ile walking in the park此句不就沒動詞,會不會與連接詞必須要有子句(S+V)的觀念相牴觸呢

My Answer:

She came down the hill ,singing a song => a better sentence.

不會混淆讀者.

With the original sentence: “She came down the hill singing a song”
 =>  “singing a song”放在“the hill” 的旁邊可能混淆讀者, 讀者可能以為“singing a song” 是修飾“the hill”, 這類型的錯誤被稱為錯置修飾語.

This means that it COULD be interpreted as “the hill was singing a song”. This type of mistake is called misplaced modifiers (錯置的修飾語).

For example:

She came down the hill. The hill was singing a song.

She came down the hill singing a song.

句子須明確，才不會誤導讀者. "錯置的修飾語"和"垂懸修飾語" 是高級語法教的概念,許多ESL學習者會犯的錯誤

劍橋大學所出版的 ”Grammar In Use U65” 解釋兩件事情同時發生,擇其一加 ing, 指的是下列的句子，不會混淆讀者的句子, 不須加逗號.  加逗號是為防止混淆.  Remember, 文法要活讀.

I met him. He was walking in the park.

I met him (who was) walking in the park.

=> We know that "he" was (the one) walking in the park when I met him.

I saw the boy. The boy was singing a song.

I saw the boy (who was) singing a song.

=> We know that “the boy” was (the one) singing a song when I saw him.

See the difference?

Back to this sentence, there are differences in meaning depending on where the modifiers are placed:
修飾語放置位置的不同,意義可能會有差異

I met him walking in the park.
= I met him. He was walking in the park.
= I met him (who was) walking in the park.

=> He was the one who was walking in the park.

Walking in the park, I met him
= I was walking in the park. I met him.
= (I was) Walking in the park, I met him.

=> I was the one who was walking in the park.

See the difference?

While I was walking in the park, I met him.

= While (I was) walking in the park, I met him.

=> 省略 (I was),

以下鏈接提供"分詞", "錯置的修飾語"和"垂懸修飾語"更多資料以及如何改正:

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/elisa-world/article?mid=640&prev=645&next=639&l=f&fid=13 

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