Note that verb phrases can be either progressive participles(-ing)or past
participles(-ed).
Phrasal modifiers are used primarily in narrative-descriptive writing to pro-
vide details and images. In addition, phrasal modifiers can appear in three posi-
tions relative to the independent clause: in the initial position, the medial
position, and the final position. Medial phrasal modifiers split the independent
clause, separating the subject and the predicate, as inMacarena, her eyes wild,
confronted the waiter.Most phrasal modifiers, however, are in the final
position. Consider these sentences:
- I danced with excitement,winding myself around my nana’s legs, balling
my hands in her apron, tugging at her dress, and stepping on her toes.(Fi-
nal position) - The prisoners stumbled forward,their ankles chained, their hands tied, sweat
pouring down their faces and collecting into small pools at the base of the
neck. (Final position) - The wind blew in from the desert,a cold, dry wind that smelled faintly of sage
and juniper,and the moon rose overhead,illuminating the courtyard and the
three men talking in the night.(Final position) - With Fred’s cologne exuding from her pores in a thick vapor,Macarena circu-
lated among the cigar smokers in the hope that the stench adhering to her hair
and clothes would at least confuse Fritz when she met him later that night.
(Initial position) - Fritz,confused and somewhat nauseated by the various aromas coming from
Macarena’s skin and clothes,suggested that she shower before dinner. (Me-
dial position)
The phrasal modifiers in the first sentence are all verb phrases; in the sec-
ond, they are all nominative absolutes; in the third sentence, there is a noun
phrase and a verb phrase; in the fourth sentence, the modifier is a nomina-
tive absolute (introduced by a preposition); the last sentence has one
verb-phrase modifier.
As noted previously, the chief advocate of phrasal modification was Francis
Christensen, whose work on the rhetoric of the sentence was very influential
from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. In some respects Christensen’s
work was part of an effort to use grammar as a means of improving writing
through what was known assentence combining.Although several studies
showed that students who engaged in sentence combining gained better control
over sentence structure and produced more mature writing (Combs, 1977;
Daiker, Kerek, & Morenberg, 1978; Howie, 1979; Pedersen, 1978), the ap-
proach had all but disappeared from teaching by the mid-1980s.
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR 95