comma with fronted past participle: Awoken, the dragon emerged from

A

akashoz

Member
English (?)
I hope that someone can confirm:
(1) "The awoken dragon emerged from his cave." // <-- "awoken" modifies "dragon" (adjective)
(2) "Awoken, the dragon emerged from his cave." // <-- "awoken" modifies "emerged" (adverb)

(3) "The running man jumped on the train." // <-- "running" modifies "man" (adjective)
(4) "Running, the man jumped on the train." // <-- "running modifies "jumped" (adverb)

[possible exception?]
(5) "From Japan, Bob joined the video conference." // <-- "From Japan" is an adverb.
(6) "From Japan, Masako likes sushi." // <-- "From Japan" is an adjective. The comma rule breaks, but I am discounting such contrived sentences.
(7) "Being from Japan, Masako likes sushi." // <-- I would not place a comma after "Japan". Does anyone disagree?

Excepting appositive phrases and lists, no "stuff" to the left of a comma can modify a noun to the right of the comma, right?
 
Last edited:
    • Your analysis is wrong. Awoken modifies dragon, and running modifies man. The comma is needed simply because you have changed the word order. Sentences 5 and 6 are both contrived.
     
    Andygc said:
    Your analysis is wrong. Awoken modifies dragon, and running modifies man. The comma is needed simply because you have changed the word order. Sentences 5 and 6 are both contrived.
    Click to expand...

    I had thought that words / phrases / clauses that precede the subject, and are followed by commas, likely modify the verb in the main clause or are conjunctions?
    Do you agree with that generality for sentence parsing? If you disagree, don't worry about explaining. I will do some deep thinking and ask a better formed question (or none at all) at some later time.
     
    Staying with your man getting the train, it is not the position of the word that determines its function, but its form.

    The running man jumped on the train.
    Running, the man jumped on the train. Running is a participle and describes what sort of man he is - a running man - it's an adjective.

    Quickly, the man jumped on the train.
    The quickly man jumped on the train :eek:
    The man jumped on the train quickly. Quickly is an adverb, modifying jumped.


    << Now posting as a moderator. Your newly added sentence 7 is yet another structure, and you are wandering away from a question that is sufficiently specific for this forum >>
     
    Andygc said:
    Staying with your man getting the train, it is not the position of the word that determines its function, but its form.

    The running man jumped on the train.
    Running, the man jumped on the train. Running is a participle and describes what sort of man he is - a running man - it's an adjective.

    Quickly, the man jumped on the train.
    The quickly man jumped on the train :eek:
    The man jumped on the train quickly. Quickly is an adverb, modifying jumped.


    << Now posting as a moderator. Your newly added sentence 7 is yet another structure, and you are wandering away from a question that is sufficiently specific for this forum >>
    Click to expand...

    "Running, the man jumped on the train." // <-- [adverb]
    What type of "jump"? a "running jump".

    As a guideline, I am pretty confident that adjectives cannot forward reference over top of commas (except lists of adjectives). But... that's a brash thing to affirm. I am not sure. Certainly there are those caveats. :)
     
    Last edited:
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top