主题：【原创】翻译讨论 -- 人间树

这儿有个网页还不错，尽管还是不够详尽：

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/02/

摘一段：

If a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies an earlier word in the sentence but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies.

* The local residents often saw Ken wandering through the streets.

(The phrase modifies Ken, not residents.)

* Tom nervously watched the woman, alarmed by her silence.

(The phrase modifies Tom, not woman.)

这个网页还列了几种分词的位置：

Participles and participial phrases must be placed as close to the nouns or pronouns they modify as possible, and those nouns or pronouns must be clearly stated.

A participial phrase is set off with commas when it:

* a) comes at the beginning of a sentence

* b) interrupts a sentence as a nonessential element

* c) comes at the end of a sentence and is separated from the word it modifies.

我对这个“as close as possible”比较感兴趣，显然，它说的不是“directly following”，这里面就有可能产生ambiguity。可惜这个网站讲得还不够详细，我手上也没有什么权威资料。只好作罢了。

至于那个具体的例子，我一开头就觉得老兄的理解是对的，只是多看几眼之后，又觉得有些ambiguous，就象盯着自己耳朵越看越觉得怪。

• 查了一下，从语法上这样讲