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warrior1991
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Comma + past participle (verbED) 13 Aug 2020, 19:56
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• comma + past participle (verbED)

-- GMAT follows an unusual rule. Most grammarians allow [comma + past participle] to modify the entire previous clause.
GMAT does not.
-- If we have [comma + past participle], the past participle modifies the immediately preceding noun.
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generis I read in one your posts the snippet above.

Is this sentence correct?
Quote:
Archaeologists were excited to examine the ancient manuscripts, found accidentally by a sheep farmer.
Show more

AjiteshArun VeritasKarishma AndrewN
Your inputs on this will be much appreciated

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Comma + past participle (verbED) 14 Aug 2020, 08:58
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@marthytargettestprep

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Comma + past participle (verbED) 14 Aug 2020, 12:17
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Quote:
• comma + past participle (verbED)

-- GMAT follows an unusual rule. Most grammarians allow [comma + past participle] to modify the entire previous clause.
GMAT does not.
-- If we have [comma + past participle], the past participle modifies the immediately preceding noun.

generis I read in one your posts the snippet above.

Is this sentence correct?
Quote:
Archaeologists were excited to examine the ancient manuscripts, found accidentally by a sheep farmer.

AjiteshArun VeritasKarishma AndrewN
Your inputs on this will be much appreciated
Show more
Hello again, warrior1991. I have been especially busy lately, so I am just getting to this. Completely by chance, you are the third person to ask me about this topic in as many days. Lucky for you, then, since I have already written a few responses that speak to the point. To answer your immediate question, yes, the found phrase modifies the noun, manuscripts, just on the other side of the comma in the sentence about archaeologists, so there is no problem whatsoever (i.e. the manuscripts were found accidentally by a sheep farmer). Confusion seems to arise when people look to turn this general convention—noun + comma + -ed modifier (to modify the last noun before the comma) into an absolute rule. You can read my post to another question that incorporated a gap with an -ed modifier here. A little further down, I respond to another post and provide a link to some information from Manhattan Prep on, you guessed it, exceptions to the "touch" rule regarding -ed modifiers. You can read that post here.

I hope this helps shed some light on the issue. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew
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Comma + past participle (verbED) 14 Aug 2020, 20:52
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warrior1991
Quote:
• comma + past participle (verbED)

-- GMAT follows an unusual rule. Most grammarians allow [comma + past participle] to modify the entire previous clause.
GMAT does not.
-- If we have [comma + past participle], the past participle modifies the immediately preceding noun.

generis I read in one your posts the snippet above.

Is this sentence correct?
Quote:
Archaeologists were excited to examine the ancient manuscripts, found accidentally by a sheep farmer.

AjiteshArun VeritasKarishma AndrewN
Your inputs on this will be much appreciated
Hello again, warrior1991. I have been especially busy lately, so I am just getting to this. Completely by chance, you are the third person to ask me about this topic in as many days. Lucky for you, then, since I have already written a few responses that speak to the point. To answer your immediate question, yes, the found phrase modifies the noun, manuscripts, just on the other side of the comma in the sentence about archaeologists, so there is no problem whatsoever (i.e. the manuscripts were found accidentally by a sheep farmer). Confusion seems to arise when people look to turn this general convention—noun + comma + -ed modifier (to modify the last noun before the comma) into an absolute rule. You can read my post to another question that incorporated a gap with an -ed modifier here. A little further down, I respond to another post and provide a link to some information from Manhattan Prep on, you guessed it, exceptions to the "touch" rule regarding -ed modifiers. You can read that post here.

I hope this helps shed some light on the issue. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew
Show more

I get you. So you mean that a verb-ed modifier can modify "a noun" as well as "a clause"??
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Comma + past participle (verbED) 15 Aug 2020, 04:14
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warrior1991
I get you. So you mean that a verb-ed modifier can modify "a noun" as well as "a clause"??
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For GMAT™ purposes, I agree with generis above, with the exception that in certain sentences, the past participle may not logically refer to the noun immediately on the other side of the comma (which is typically an object of a preposition, just as this very which clause refers back to the word noun instead of side or comma). For instance, we could alter the sentence about archaeologists by inserting some extra information about the manuscripts, but the modifier would still be understood to refer to the word manuscripts:

Archaeologists were excited to examine the ancient manuscripts with previously unknown markings on several pages, found accidentally by a sheep farmer.

Notice that the past participle modifying manuscripts is now two prepositional phrases removed from the noun it modifies. But we can appreciate that the farmer still found manuscripts, not markings or pages.

I hope that helps clarify the matter. If not, you know how to reach me.

- Andrew
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Comma + past participle (verbED) 15 Aug 2020, 04:44
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AndrewN

For GMATTM purposes, I agree with generis above, with the exception that in certain sentences, the past participle may not logically refer to the noun immediately on the other side of the comma (which is typically an object of a preposition, just as this very which clause refers back to the word noun instead of side or comma). For instance, we could alter the sentence about archaeologists by inserting some extra information about the manuscripts, but the modifier would still be understood to refer to the word manuscripts:

Archaeologists were excited to examine the ancient manuscripts with previously unknown markings on several pages, found accidentally by a sheep farmer.

Notice that the past participle modifying manuscripts is now two prepositional phrases removed from the noun it modifies. But we can appreciate that the farmer still found manuscripts, not markings or pages.

I hope that helps clarify the matter. If not, you know how to reach me.

- Andrew
Show more

Thank you so much. I understand it completely now.

Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
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