sentence structure :: Manhattan GMAT Forums

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:06 pm

S+V+O, V-ing blah blah.
S+V+O, V-ed blah blah.

Can "V-ing" and "V-ed" modify the noun right before the comma? Or they cannot because a comma exists?
Thanks in advance.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:31 am

i would side with the latter: if preceded by a comma, participial phrases (that's the name of the types of modifiers you're talking about here, fyi) can be understood to act as adverb phrases modifying the entire preceding clause, or, more specifically, the verb of the preceding clause.

i'm trying to think of exceptions, but can't come up with any.

two clarifying examples (although i think you already get the point):
the hunter shot a nice fat deer, ensuring a hearty dinner --> means what you think it means
the hunter shot a nice fat deer ensuring a hearty dinner --> the deer was in the process of ensuring a nice hearty dinner when it was shot

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:11 pm

I think that I saw that some SC questions in some non-GMAC books used participial phrases to modify the noun preceded by a comma. That's why it confused me =( Seems like they are wrong.
Thanks Ron!

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:39 pm

Hi Ron, Can you also give an example where a participal phrase modifies the verb of the preceding cluase as mentioned by you above?

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:51 pm

here you go[/url]

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:07 pm

RPurewal wrote:

i would side with the latter: if preceded by a comma, participial phrases (that's the name of the types of modifiers you're talking about here, fyi) can be understood to act as adverb phrases modifying the entire preceding clause, or, more specifically, the verb of the preceding clause.

i'm trying to think of exceptions, but can't come up with any.

two clarifying examples (although i think you already get the point):
the hunter shot a nice fat deer, ensuring a hearty dinner --> means what you think it means
the hunter shot a nice fat deer ensuring a hearty dinner --> the deer was in the process of ensuring a nice hearty dinner when it was shot

Ron:

I was browsing through some of the old posts and came across this post.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the-proliferation-of-so-called-cybersquatters-people-who-t392.html

The 3rd question in this post:
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

In this sentence 'determined' and 'differing' are modifying the 'local times' without the use of 'which'. I guess I am a bit confused with this one.
thanks.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:49 pm

Anonymous wrote:

RPurewal wrote:

i would side with the latter: if preceded by a comma, participial phrases (that's the name of the types of modifiers you're talking about here, fyi) can be understood to act as adverb phrases modifying the entire preceding clause, or, more specifically, the verb of the preceding clause.

i'm trying to think of exceptions, but can't come up with any.

two clarifying examples (although i think you already get the point):
the hunter shot a nice fat deer, ensuring a hearty dinner --> means what you think it means
the hunter shot a nice fat deer ensuring a hearty dinner --> the deer was in the process of ensuring a nice hearty dinner when it was shot

Ron:

I was browsing through some of the old posts and came across this post.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the-proliferation-of-so-called-cybersquatters-people-who-t392.html

The 3rd question in this post:
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

In this sentence 'determined' and 'differing' are modifying the 'local times' without the use of 'which'. I guess I am a bit confused with this one.
thanks.

yep - looks like those participles really are modifying the preceding noun. :( i think that sentence would look much nicer if it were written with 'which were' after the comma - but apparently, in the view of the gmat, it's fine without those words.

in any case, the problems with the other answer choices (mostly problems of poor parallelism) are more fundamental, so there you go.