Review of the linguistic literature on the problems of Phrase Theory in Modern Linguistics

2.2. Contextual features of Participle Phrases used in K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”

Participial phrases are short phrases that appear at the beginning of a sentence or the end of the sentence. These participial phrases should always be set off from the main clause with a comma. The action that is occuring in these participial phrases should relate back to the subject. That is, the subject of the sentence should be doing the action. If this is not the case, the result is a dangling modifier.

Participial phrases are made of a present participle (VERB -ing) or past participle (VERB – ed or VERB -en) plus any modifiers that complete the idea. These phrases serve as adjectives or adverbs within a sentence and usually need to come next to the words they describe.
Beginning participial phrases:
These must come right before the nouns that they describe. The phrases are followed commas.
Swinging from the trees, the monkey chattered at me. K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”.Sandra saw her husband, exhauted after two hours of running, collapse at the finish line. K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”
This leads to middle participial phrases.
Middle Participial Phrases:
These follow the nouns that they describe and have no commas around them if the information is necessary to identify or understand (restrictive meaning) but do have commas around them if they do not include necessary information (non-restrictive).
The man holding the gun is John Barrett. K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”
Holding the gun” helps to identify which man, so no commas are needed.
The woman wearing a red dress lives in the neighborhood. K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”
“Wearing a red dress” helps to identify which woman, so no commas needed.
The moon robot, activated by a remote switch started moving slowly across the surface. K. Macleod’s “The Wrock and Rune”
The “moon robot” is already clearly identified, and “activated by a remote switch” adds information but isn’t necessary for identification, so commas are needed.
Jenna Kim, driven wild with anger, shot her husband.
Proper nouns, identified, so a participial phrase that follows cannot be necessary for identification and must have commas.