Regarding usage of participial phrases

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Regarding usage of participial phrases

by Rabbitaoy » Fri Dec 03, 2010 6:34 am
Hi,

I understand that a participial phrase can be used to describe a noun, and it should be placed right next to the noun that the phrase describes.
For example, "lying on her bed, Wanda ordered Chinese food."

But there are times when I found the phrase placed at the end of the sentence but describing the subject.
For example, "Hundreds of species of fish generate and discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power either to find and attach prey, to defend themselves, or to communicate and navigate."

This is an OG question, and the last part of the sentence "using..." clearly is a participial phrase describing the subject "fish". Would placing the phrase at the end create a misplaced modifier?

Second question is can we use participial phrases to describe objects? I'm getting the feeling from all the questions I did that participial phrases can only be used to describe subjects.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by rishab1988 » Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:06 am
No it wouldn't create a misplaced modifier,but If a relative clause were placed instead,a misplaced modifier would be created.A participle modifier ,at the back of the sentence can modify literally anything as long as it is not ambiguous in the sense that 2 things could be logically modified by that very participle modifier.

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