[B-Greek] Prepositional Phrase [How Did Greeks Think?]

bgreek at ranulf.net bgreek at ranulf.net
Tue Oct 7 11:26:19 EDT 2003


> [...] how would the 
> reader know when coming to the final prepositional phrase 
> that it was supposed to modify the verb which came way 
> before it (i.e., it is quite distant from it)?

Experience with using the language on a day-to-day basis.

Just as you can work out what the prepositional phrase refers to
in this sentence:

And they went, both of them clutching their rucksacks, into the forest.

Of course, it helps that we use commas to make that distinction really
clear, but you'd probably understand it even without those, simply
because the clause "clutching their rucksacks into the forest" doesn't
make particularly good sense, and you're expecting (but not requiring)
a preposition after the main verb.

Ranulf Doswell
Coventry, UK



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