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by Fractal » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:14 pm
The fight over the restriction, regarded by opponents as unjustified, continues in our legislature.

Can regarded refer to "fight" as well as to "restriction", depending on the context?

thx
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by Fractal » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:28 pm
Fractal wrote:The fight over the restriction, regarded by opponents as unjustified, continues in our legislature.

Can regarded refer to "fight" as well as to "restriction", depending on the context?

thx
Another example:

The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

--> Regarded refers to fight, and not to speed limit (according to the solution I saw). So "verb-ed modifier" doesn't necessarily modify the closest noun?!

thx a lot
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by gunjan1208 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:09 pm
Yes. You are right. Verb modifiers may or may not touch the noun depending on the context unlike noun modifiers.
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by Fractal » Thu Sep 22, 2011 1:43 am
gunjan1208 wrote:Yes. You are right. Verb modifiers may or may not touch the noun depending on the context unlike noun modifiers.
But in this sentence...

The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

... "regarded" modifies incorrectly "fight" instead of "speed limit". For the meaning to be correct, "regarded" must modify "speed limit". So I don't get along with the rule "depending on the context"....

So I assume that in such a structure:

noun + noun modifier, verb-ed

--> verb-ed always modifies the noun (and not the noun modifier)

Is that correct? Experts plz? :-)
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by e-GMAT » Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:20 am
The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

First of all in constructions : noun1 preposition noun2, noun modifier - the noun modifier can either modify noun 1 or noun 2 depending on the context and if there is no ambiguity.

In this sentence the reference of the verb-ed noun modifier "regarded by...'is unclear. It actually is ambiguous since it makes sense with both fight and speed limit and hence this sentence is not correct.

Lets consider a variation of this sentence:
The fight over the speed limit, set at maximum 25 mph in residential areas, continues in our legislatures.
Here there is no question that "set at ..." modifies "speed limit"

Hope this helps.
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