A Word, Please:

In a sentence, an adjective can qualify as an adjective phrase. In grammar, phrases — namely adjective, noun, verb, adverb and prepositional phrases — do not contain both a subject and a verb. They’re smaller than that. A phrase works as the noun or the verb, or one of those three other things.

So if “talking” is basically an adjective phrase in “Mr. Ed was a talking horse,” how do we understand “talking” in, “I saw the horse talking to a cow”? Is it a phrase or a clause?

I asked Geoffrey Pullum, linguistics professor at the University of Edinburgh. He explained that there is no right answer. Such a unit can be either, depending on your interpretation.

Regardless, “Walking down the beach, my shoulders got sunburned” has a dangling participle. It’s dangling because the participle “walking” seems to connect to “my shoulders” even though shoulders can’t walk.

So go ahead and fear participles, if you like. It doesn’t mean you have to dangle them.

?JUNE CASAGRANDE is author of “Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs — Even If You’re Right.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.