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Tashiro Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
What does the participle phrase modify?
Hi, teachers. Could you help me when you are free?
"The network’s Feb 22 story illustrated a report by David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who suggested that a design flaw in Toyotas might trigger a short circuit that would go undetected by the car’s computer system, causing sudden unintended acceleration."
What does the participle phrase "causing sudden unintended acceleration" modify in the sentence above? I thought of two ways. One is it modifies "short circuit", and the other is it modifies "a design flaw ~ computer system". I mean that in the second way I think "a design flaw ~ unintended acceleration." as a participial construction. Which is correct? or neither?
*Incidentally, if there are some grammatical errors in my questions, could you correct them?
"The network’s Feb 22 story illustrated a report by David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who suggested that a design flaw in Toyotas might trigger a short circuit that would go undetected by the car’s computer system, causing sudden unintended acceleration."
What does the participle phrase "causing sudden unintended acceleration" modify in the sentence above? I thought of two ways. One is it modifies "short circuit", and the other is it modifies "a design flaw ~ computer system". I mean that in the second way I think "a design flaw ~ unintended acceleration." as a participial construction. Which is correct? or neither?
*Incidentally, if there are some grammatical errors in my questions, could you correct them?
Top answer
system'.
- system'.
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2 Answers
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It is an adverbial modifying the whole 'a design flaw...system'.
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tashiroI thought of two ways. One is it modifies "short circuit", and the other is it modifies "a design flaw ~ computer system".You are looking only for nouns. Pariticipial constructions do not always modify nouns.
causing ... acceleration describes neither the flaw nor the short circuit.
... a design flaw might trigger a short c
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