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Fire1 Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

A past participle phrase far away from its modified noun phrase

A. The man with a tattoo on his face arrested by the police was sent to hospital.

I think that sentence A is correct when "arrested by the police" modifies "The man"

To put it simply, I would like to know whether there are some examples where a past participle phrase such as " arrested by the police" can describe a noun phrase such as "the man" when there is a prepositional phrase such as "with a tattoo on his face" between the past participle and the noun phrase.

Q1) So, like in sentence A, is it possible in English when a past participle phrase can modify a noun phrase when a prepositional phrase is between the participle phrase and the noun phrase?

Q2) If so, would you make some examples where it works?

(I certainly have seen this kind of writing style before, but I'm not sure)

Q3) If it does not work in formal English, does it work at least in informal English? or in spoken English or in English novels if context is clear?

I'm talking about these two structures.(Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)(Pre P is like .. next to the car or with a tattoo...)

(1)Past P + Pre P + NP is/are/verb ...(NP modifies Past P)

(2)... is/are/verb + Past P + Pre P + NP(NP modifies Past P)

Would you answer my three questions one by one?

  

Top answer

(NP modifies Past P)(2)... is/are/verb + Past P + Pre P + NP(NP modifies Past P) I wrote this part wrong. (Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)(Pre P is like ..

— Fire1

  • (NP modifies Past P)(2)...
  • is/are/verb + Past P + Pre P + NP(NP modifies Past P) I wrote this part wrong.
  • (Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)(Pre P is like ..
  • (Past P modifies NP) (2)...
  • is/are/verb + NP + Pre P + Past P(Past P modifies NP)
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2 Answers
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fire1(1)Past P + Pre P + NP is/are/verb ...(NP modifies Past P)(2)... is/are/verb + Past P + Pre P + NP(NP modifies Past P)

I wrote this part wrong.


The correction is below


I'm talking about these two structures.(Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)(Pre P is like .. next to the car or with a tattoo..

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fire1 The man with a tattoo on his face arrested by the police was sent to hospital.
I think that sentence A is correct when "arrested by the police" modifies "The man"

There is no other logical choice. Faces are not subject to arrest.

Careful writers will avoid such awkwardness and rephrase the sentence.

In spoken English, this frag

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