Non-participial Modifiers
Non-participial modifiers that dangle can also be troublesome:
| “ | After years of being lost under a pile of dust, Walter P. Stanley, III, left, found all the old records of the Bangor Lions Club. | ” |
The above sentence, from a newspaper article, humorously suggests that it is the subject of the sentence, Walter Stanley, who was buried under a pile of dust, and not the records. It is the prepositional phrase "after years of being lost under a pile of dust" which dangles. This example has been cited in at least one usage manual as an example of the kind of ambiguity that can result from a dangling modifier.
Another famous example of this humorous effect is by Groucho Marx as Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding in the 1930 film, Animal Crackers:
| “ | One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. – | ” |
Though under the most plausible interpretation of the first sentence, Captain Spaulding would have been wearing the pajamas, the line plays on the grammatical possibility that the elephant was somehow within his pajamas.
Strunk and White offer this example: "As a mother of five, and with another on the way, my ironing board is always up." Is the ironing board (grammatical subject) really the mother of five? Correct: "As the mother of five, and with another on the way, I always keep my ironing board up." Also correct: "My ironing board is always up, because I am the mother of five, with another on the way."
Read more about this topic: Dangling Modifier