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Why modifier in (A) "earning", is wrong since its modifying companies. Whereas, "which earn" and "which earned" are redundant.
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lakshya14
Why modifier in (A) "earning", is wrong since its modifying companies. Whereas, "which earn" and "which earned" are redundant.

Hi Lakshya

A comma followed by an -ing modifier, when it comes at the end of a sentence, modifies the entire action of the preceding clause and applies to the subject of that clause. For instance:

The actor spent less than an hour looking over his lines last week, playing Hamlet for the third time in a year

The modifier "playing" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "The actor".

Applying the principle here, "earning" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "Large scale logging". Since it is clearly the companies that earn profits by "leasing...exporting...and not replanting", and not "logging", this is incorrect.

"which" always applies to the immediately preceding noun or noun-idea, in this case, "companies", and is the correct usage.

Hope this helps.
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lakshya14
Why modifier in (A) "earning", is wrong since its modifying companies. Whereas, "which earn" and "which earned" are redundant.

Hi Lakshya

A comma followed by an -ing modifier, when it comes at the end of a sentence, modifies the entire action of the preceding clause and applies to the subject of that clause. For instance:

The actor spent less than an hour looking over his lines last week, playing Hamlet for the third time in a year

The modifier "playing" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "The actor".

Applying the principle here, "earning" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "Large scale logging". Since it is clearly the companies that earn profits by "leasing...exporting...and not replanting", and not "logging", this is incorrect.

"which" always applies to the immediately preceding noun or noun-idea, in this case, "companies", and is the correct usage.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. But isn't the preceding clause is "is carried out mainly by international logging companies, or is it just a descriptive phrase?
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How are you supposed to know which meaning is intended by the author?

(E) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people and export unfinished logs without replanting -

"Leasing" is not parallel with "Export unfinished log without replanting" and there is a meaning shift.

Here “which earn by... and export...” this is parallel right? And this makes more sense to me too. This is describing the company which exports logs without replanting. It doesn’t make much sense to me to say the company earned profits by exporting logs and earned profits by not replanting.

How am I supposed to decipher the correct intended meaning?

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What's wromg with A? I believe comma + ing modfies the nearest noun and in this case is companies.

Please share your insight
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Here how "large-scale logging" can be the subject of the sentence ? Isn't it the object of the sentence? Here, the subject "International logging companies" carries out "Large scale logging". Hence, International logging companies is the subject here.
Is there something wrong in my understanding ?
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