Participle modifiers in a row

[divineacclivity]

Hi Ron,

1. Could you please tell me if we can have multiple participle modifiers in a row?

2. Is the following one correct?
S-1:
In 1895 Emma Wills and Dela Green began their pioneering work in liberal arts, traveling the back roads of Europe armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity

"travelling .." and "armed.." are participle modifiers modifying the subject (= Emma and Dela), right?

Does the following sentence make more sense than the above one:
S-2:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity, began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895.

S-3:
I can think of another way to write this sentence:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity.

Are all S-1, S-2, S-3 grammatically (GMAT's point of view) correct? Is any one of these absolutely wrong? Do we have a preference order in terms of their correctness?

thanks so much in advance

[singh.181]

Hi Ron,

1. Could you please tell me if we can have multiple participle modifiers in a row?

2. Is the following one correct?
S-1:
In 1895 Emma Wills and Dela Green began their pioneering work in liberal arts, traveling the back roads of Europe armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity

"travelling .." and "armed.." are participle modifiers modifying the subject (= Emma and Dela), right?

Does the following sentence make more sense than the above one:
S-2:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity, began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895.

S-3:
I can think of another way to write this sentence:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity.

Are all S-1, S-2, S-3 grammatically (GMAT's point of view) correct? Is any one of these absolutely wrong? Do we have a preference order in terms of their correctness?

thanks so much in advance

According to me, S1, S2 and S3 are different because a change in the position of modifier results a change in the meaning.

[Willy]

1. Yes, I believe we can have multiple participle modifiers in a row.

2. To me, only S-1 looks correct

S-1 -- In 1895 Emma Wills and Dela Green began their pioneering work in liberal arts, traveling the back roads of Europe armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity

and in S-1 blue part is modifying how Emma Wills and Dela Green began their pioneering work in liberal arts.

For S-2 and S-3, I am not sure whether I can explain but these look incorrect to me. Definitely, S-3 has changed the meaning. Now, in S-3

Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela Green....

blue part is modifying Emma and Dela Green.

[divineacclivity]

Ok, thank you, Ron and Will.
I now understand that there's a change in the meaning.
In S-2, other than the change in the meaning, are "travelling.." & "armed.." modifiers placed correctly (grammatically)? Would both still be modifying Emma and Dela? Shouldn't both be touching the subject (Emma, Dela)?
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity, began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895.

thanks in advance.

[RonPurewal]

Ok, thank you, Ron and Will

hmm?
i have not responded to this thread until now.

1. Could you please tell me if we can have multiple participle modifiers in a row?

examples please? (sorry, i don't really know the grammatical terminology)

2. Is the following one correct?
S-1:
In 1895 Emma Wills and Dela Green began their pioneering work in liberal arts, traveling the back roads of Europe armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity

"travelling .." and "armed.." are participle modifiers modifying the subject (= Emma and Dela), right?

in this case, you could also interpret "armed..." as modifying the preceding action (i.e., giving more detail about how wills and green traveled the back roads of europe). ideally, the modifier should relate to both the subject and the action anyway.
in any case, this sentence is correct.

Does the following sentence make more sense than the above one:
S-2:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity, began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895.

this one, while technically correct, is less appropriate, because it seems to imply that wills and green were in the middle of a road trip when they were like, "hey, let's start some pioneering research!"

i wouldn't really worry about this difference, though; it's way too subtle to be tested on the exam.

S-3:
I can think of another way to write this sentence:
Travelling the back roads of Europe, Emma and Dela began their pioneering work in liberal arts in 1895, armed only with an old record player and insatiable curiosity.

this one has the same issue as your #2, but, again, the difference is well beyond the scope of the gmat exam.

as far as what you'll actually need to know for the exam, all of these sentences are acceptable.

[divineacclivity]

Thank you very much Ron. I honestly keenly look forward to replies from you because your replies are so so so so to the point and so beautifully written that most of the times a poster is left with no follow up questions :)
And I wanted to thank Will and the other poster but typed your name instead because I wished to get a reply from you as I typed :)
I'm a huge huge fan of your teaching skills & knowledge :)

BTW, your replies to my examples answer my first question too. thank you.

[jnelson0612]

Good to hear! :-)