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Example: "John jumped over the girl shouting angrily."

I assume the participle construction replaces a relative clause in this case. ("who shouted angrily").

My question: Can a participle modifying a noun other than a subject also replace an adverbial clause?

Thanks for your help!

Leo
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  • I don't understand what you're referring to as the adverbial clause. – Xanne Apr 29 '18 at 22:24
  • That's when a participle construction is used in place of an adverbial clause. – Leo Apr 29 '18 at 22:48
  • John jumped over the girl shouting angrily is ambiguous. It can mean either that the girl was shouting, or that John was shouting while he jumped. As you say, it needs a subject, but there are two possible subjects and they're both grammatical. – John Lawler Apr 29 '18 at 23:48
  • I don't think so. If John was shouting this would read: "John jumped over the girl, shouting angrily." The comma makes the difference here. – Leo Apr 30 '18 at 07:22
  • Generally, clauses like this modify the nearest noun, so it's natural to assume that "shouting angrily" modifies "girl". If the intention is to modify "John", then as you said, inserting a comma after "girl" might help disambiguate. Btw, I don't know why you said "adverbial clause" -- relative clauses are not adverbial, they modify nouns and are often said to be adjective clauses. – BillJ Apr 30 '18 at 09:36
  • Maybe I did not make myself clear enough: I was wondering whether a participle construction modifying a noun other than the subject ("girl" in this case) can be used in place of an adverbial clause as well (and not only in place of an adjective clause/a relative clause). – Leo Apr 30 '18 at 09:57

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