present participle modifying the sentence

[Chinn_asama]

Hi there

In the sentence below, what is 'citing humanitarian.....'? A present participle modifying the entire sentence and not any noun?

"all indications are that Washington is thinking of aerial bombardment along the lines of Nato's 1999 attack on Yugoslavia, once again citing humanitarian compulsions to justify what would be an act of aggression."

Regards
Chinna

[Jim@StratusPrep]

This is a participle phrase. Such phrases modify the main now of the sentence: in this case Washington.

[Chinn_asama]

You mean the participle always modifies a noun and not the sentence by giving extra information or result of the action?

Here is another case: Banks made huge profits 'acting as middlemen, buying and selling bundles of these loans to speculative investors in so-called over-the counter (OTC) deals'. Why is the participle phrase not beside the noun banks?




Regards

[\'manpreet singh]

Whenever a verb-ing ,is after a clause separated by a comma it always modifies the entire clause


Clause.........., verb-ing......

[\'manpreet singh]

Whenever a verb-ing ,is after a clause separated by a comma it always modifies the entire clause


Clause.........., verb-ing......