Dangling modifier

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In grammar, a dangling modifier or misplaced modifier is a word or phrase that is intended to modify one element of a sentence, but that — due to its placement — seems to modify another. One common form of dangling modifier is a sentence-initial participle phrase that is not intended to modify the subject, as in this example from the 1918 Elements of Style: ?"Being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the house very cheap." (The question mark indicates that the grammaticality of the example is in question.) The speaker presumably means "The house being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy it very cheap", but the placement of "being in a dilapidated condition" makes it seem to modify "I" rather than "the house". This type of construction is so common that the term dangling participle is often used, but other kinds of modifiers can be dangling modifiers as well.

In more extreme cases, modifiers are sometimes intended to describe the speaker, even when the speaker isn't a participant in the sentence. Some such modifiers are fairly standard, and not considered dangling modifiers — "speaking of [topic]", for example, is commonly used as a transition from one topic to a related one — but this is not generally the case: in "Fuming, she left the room", "fuming" can only modify "she".

Hopefully

In the last forty years or so, a major controversy has arisen over the proper usage of the adverb hopefully.^[1] Some grammarians began to object when they first encountered constructions like: "Hopefully, the sun will be shining tomorrow." Their complaint stems from the fact that the term "hopefully" dangles, and can be understood to describe either the speaker's state of mind, or the manner in which the sun will shine. It was no longer just an adverb modifying a verb, an adjective or another adverb as hitherto, but conveniently also one that modified the whole sentence, in order to convey the attitude of the speaker.

In common speech, "hopefully", when used in this modern fashion, is known as a sentence adverb (cf. "admittedly", "mercifully", "oddly"). For example, most listeners will interpret "Hopefully, John got home last night" as meaning that the speaker hopes that John arrived home last night, not that John got home last night in a hopeful manner.

One of the reasons the sentence adverb usage seems more acceptable these days is that its semantics are reminiscent of the German hoffentlich ("it is to be hoped that") which implies (in the context of the first example) that the speaker hopes the sun will shine. Furthermore, it is because of their conciseness, avoiding the need to put into several words what can be said in one, that the use of sentence adverbs is establishing itself more and more in colloquial speech. Per Bernstein's Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins^[2]:

No other word in English expresses that thought. In a single word we can say it is regrettable that (regrettably) or it is fortunate that (fortunately) or it is lucky that (luckily), and it would be comforting if there were such a word as hopably or, as suggested by Follett, hopingly, but there isn't. [...] In this instance nothing is to be lost—the word would not be destroyed in its primary meaning—and a useful, nay necessary term is to be gained.

What had been expressed in lengthy adverbial constructions, such as "it is regrettable that …" or "it is fortunate that …", had of course always been shortened to the adverbs "regrettably" or "fortunately". What has changed, however, in the controversy over "hopefully" = "he was hoping that …", or "she was full of hope that …", is that the original clause was transferred from the speaker, as a kind of shorthand to the subject itself, as though "it" had expressed the hope. ("Hopefully, the sun will be shining"). Although this still expressed the speaker's hope "that the sun will be shining" it may have caused a certain disorientation as to who was expressing what when it first appeared. As time passes, this controversy will fade as the usage becomes more and more accepted, especially since such adverbs as mercifully, gratefully, and thankfully are used similarly.

See also

• Garden path sentence, a stylistic pitfall that causes confusion in a way similar to dangling modifiers.
• Adverbial, for sentence adverbials commenting on a whole sentence.

References

1. ^ Kahn, John Ellison and Robert Ilson, Eds. The Right Word at the Right Time: A Guide to the English Language and How to Use It, pp. 27–29. London: The Reader's Digest Association Limited, 1985. ISBN 0-276-38439-3.
2. ^ Bernstein, Theodore M. Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins, p. 51. The Noonday Press, New York, 1971. ISBN 0-374-52315-0.

External links

• Dangling modifiers
• Hopefully as sentence adverb
• Hopefully fails to modify sentence elements. Originally citing Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesom Words