Word order, attachment and ambiguity

This branch covers sentence elements that attach wrongly or permit unintended readings, divided by the source of the ambiguity or mismatch. Basic sentence construction, voice and nominalisation, pronoun reference across sentences and punctuation sit outside this branch.

• Semantic and syntactical ambiguity — word meanings, alternative structural readings, context and noun strings
• Misplaced and dangling modifiers — participles, absolute phrases, misplaced phrases, adjective clauses, and using or based on without an appropriate noun
• Where an adverb or each goes — placement, specificity, emphasis and split infinitives
• What as well, also and too add, and to what — additive adverbs, the grammar of as well as and clarity about what is added
• Garden path sentences and the omitted that — misleading initial readings, reduced relative clauses and noun-clause markers
• Making respectively, labels and comparisons explicit — paired lists, values beside labels and complete comparisons
• Checking that a verb can take its noun — transitivity, arguments, adjuncts and subjects able to perform the action