Sentence modifier, incorrect modifier or what?

Question

From city streets to mountain tops, more and more people are prepared to pit their fitness and mental stamina against prolonged physical demands.The bolded phrase modifies are 'prepared to pit,' but I feel it does so very loosely, as shown below:Where do they pit their fitness and mental stamina against prolonged physical demands? From city streets to mountain tops. No. In city streets and on mountain tops.Is the original incorrect?Or is it just very loosely modifying to pitOr is it correct and simply a sentence modifier?Thanks

Avangi · Accepted Answer

English 1b3From city streets to mountain tops, more and more people are prepared to pit their fitness and mental stamina against prolonged physical demands.

"From city streets to mountain tops" modifies "people."

It does not tell us where these people might perform these deeds.
(It only tells us that these people are prepared to do something.)

Edit. I'll split the difference with you: it modifies the clause, "people are prepared etc."

"From city streets to mountain tops" simply means "people everywhere."

Sometimes these are called "sentential modifiers." They modify the whole idea.

I believe you're mistaken in assigning the modifier specifically to the location where the deeds are to be performed.
You might say that people in city streets are prepared to pit their fitness against challenges on the mountain tops.
People everywhere are prepared to meet these challenges wherever they find them.

The main verb is "are." The simple subject is "people." Where are the people? What are they prepared to do?

CalifJim · Answer

I too see the introductory phrase as a modifier of "people".

Which people? People from city streets to mountain tops.

CJ

English 1b3 · Answer

Hi and thanks.

I think further context reveals that it is not talking about people from city streets and mountain tops. The sentence is from a book called Survival Of The Fittest by Mike Stroud, and here is a bit more context:

Simultaneously, there has been an increased interest in activities such as mountaineering and prolonged expeditions to far flung regions. From city streets to mountain tops, more and more people are prepared to pit their fitness and mental stamina against prolonged physical demands.

The author is talking about marathon running and various other endurance sports that take place all over the globe. So I do still feel the phrase is telling us where people are prepared to pit their...

Has the greater context changed either of your minds? If i understood correctly, Avangi's answer is close to this.

Thank you

Avangi · Answer

<< From city streets to mountain tops, more and more people are prepared to pit their fitness and mental stamina against prolonged physical demands.>>

More and more people are now prepared to meet these challenges from the city streets to the mountain tops.

It's possible that what you say about the author's intention is true.
It's possible that when reading the article, we might be led in that direction.
Either way, he seems to have left at least three of less than completely satisfied, and we might accuse him of bad writing.

Even by moving the modifying expression from the subject side to the predicate side, I haven't succeeded in making the meaning clear.

<< Is the original incorrect?
Or is it just very loosely modifying to pit
Or is it correct and simply a sentence modifier?>>

So again we ask, does it modify the subject (as CJ and I suspected), the predicate (as you suspected), or the clause (as you and I both allowed might be possible)?

The essence of the sentence is "People are prepared." The assignment of the modifiers is problematic.

"To pit" is on the predicate side. If you say "from city streets to mountain tops" modifies "to pit," you leave the people out. I can't buy that.

"People are prepared" is not a passive structure. "Are" is the verb and "prepared" is an adjective complement.
"from city streets to mountain tops" is a location.
Where are the people when they possess this quality of preparedness??
The sentence doesn't really tell us that these people actually pit anything. They're simply prepared to do so.

In my opinion, if you want to say that certain people are prepared to do something somewhere else, that has to be a different sentence.
People everywhere are prepared to do something in the city streets and in the mountains.

I'm making a terrible mess of this. The problem I can't get a handle on is that the sentence describes two different time frames and only one location (from here to there).
They're prepared right now (but where?) to do something later (but somewhere else?)

CalifJim · Answer

English 1b3Has the greater context changed either of your minds?

Yes. To some extent. They'll pit X against Y anywhere from city streets to mountain tops.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

If you write it this way
People from city streets to montain tops are prepared to...
That modifies people.
Am I mistaken?

English 1b3 · Answer

I think 'anywhere' in CJ's rewrite shows what the writer was trying to say. I think what I said firstly about it loosely (and thus unclearly) modifying the entire sentence, or perhaps the predicate ('are prepared to pit') is perhaps correct.

It's not a well written sentence as Avangi has said. I should stop trying to analyse poorly written sentences.

Sentence modifier, incorrect modifier or what?

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