could"comma ING" modify the preceding noun?

[tolotolot247]

Manhattan SC book says "COMMA ING" cannot modify the preceding noun, and it should modify the preceding clause. However, I have seen the official explanations say that it could modify the preceding noun. Which one is right?Can anyone advice? Thanks!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Modifiers are a complicated area and there's controversy among grammarians about some of these issues. Take a couple of examples:

I broke a window, making my dad angry. Here, it was the fact that I broke the window that made him angry. 'Making' is modifying the whole clause. The sentence is fine.

Sally walked along the street, whistling a tune. Now, we could have an argument here. You could say that 'whistling' is modifying Sally, as she's doing the action. Or you could say that it's modifying the clause, as it describes two actions happening at the same time. The modifier gives some information about how she walked along the street. At this point we need to remember that our role is to answer GMAT questions, not analyze grammatical structures. Both interpretations are fine and the sentence works.

What you need to watch out for are sentences similar to the following:

Sally walked along the street, liking peanuts. This sentence probably feels strange to you, and it is. It doesn't work because there's no logical connection between liking peanuts and the rest of the sentence. 'comma -ing' modifiers need a logical connection. Consequently, a 'which' modifier would work much better: Sally, who likes peanuts, walked along the street.

[TamaraM471]

Hi,

I have an example to add to this topic. In my opinion this is an example of verb-ing, used as a noun modifier, and preceded by a comma. Correct?

The angry politician, frustrated by the opposition’s parliamentary tactics and screaming about the other parties’ unconstitutional behaviour, is both a hypocrite and a narcissist.

Thanks already for your input!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

That seems to be the case. Note that there's still the connection between the modifier and the clause though. We don't simply have two separate facts about the politician, as we could in the case of a 'which' modifier. Also, this sounds like a made up example to me. I'd take care when making up your own examples of complex sentences, as GMAT often uses language in a slightly different way than most of us in our everyday communication.