Hi, Anton!  Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:   
      
   AS>  Alexander Koryagin quoted:   
      
   AK>  Lady opened the door, jumped off our plane while taxiing   
   AK>  to the gate.   
      
   AS>  Does not the phrase "while taxiing to the gate" dangle in   
   AS>  the sense as a participle sometimes dangles, for it is the   
   AS>  plane rather than the lady that is taxiing?   
      
      
             That's my take on it.  I generally refer to such phrases as   
   "dangling modifiers" because the principle is the same.  Common sense tells us   
   one thing, but the grammatical structure tells us something else.  If the   
   problem could be solved by rearranging the word order I'd have called it a   
   "misplaced modifier".   
      
             Here is another example I saw recently in a local newspaper:  "At   
   the age of three, his parents emigrated to Canada".  I figure what the author   
   meant was not that this couple had set a new record as World's Youngest   
   Parents.  ;-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  I therefore suggest a correction: "while it was taxiing to   
   AS>  the gate."   
      
      
             Agreed.  WRT my own addition here I'd probably have said "When he   
   was three years old, his parents... [blah blah]".  I can't be sure because I   
   wasn't there at the time, however, and AFAIC I shouldn't have to guess what   
   the author meant.  Sloppy language can lead to sloppy thinking & vice versa.   
      
             In some ways, my Russian correspondents understand native speakers   
   of English better than they do.  When I forget the names of verb tenses in   
   English I often refer to a joke I noticed in RUSSIAN_TUTOR awhile ago.  If you   
   know the names of such things... which you probably do, because you are   
   learning English as a foreign language... I know how to look them up.  Other   
   native speakers may not have as many reference books as I do because their   
   career paths led them in different directions.  But Mark & Paul (e.g.) have   
   the right instincts....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)