Is "as an assembly worker" a dangling modifier in the following?
As an assembly worker, your duty is to check products for defects.
I'd appreciate your help.
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2 Answers
It is simply a reordering of Your duty as an assembly worker...
Compare:
As an artist his impulse is to express himself ...
As an artist his aim was to reproduce ...
As an artist his latest productions were ...
as an artist his facility became in part paralysed by awe.
as an artist his interest in her daughter's appearance was a ...
As a singer his seemingly lazy intonation ...
as a doctor his background would be more thoroughly investigated...
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I think such sentences are correct, but traditional grammar says that fronted modifiers such as "as an assembly worker" must refer to the subject, but the subject is "you duty," not "you."– ApollyonCommented May 6, 2018 at 5:13
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I don't believe it's necessarily a reordering in the way you describe it. The use of as here seems ambiguous to me—although still not ungrammatical in either case. It could mean like an assembly worker or since you are an assembly worker. Commented May 6, 2018 at 20:22
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(Sorry, I meant the use of as in the original question, with the comma.) Commented May 6, 2018 at 20:46
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Well, @Apollyon, I'll agree that the OP subject is "your duty". I can't quite agree that you has anything to do with it. This duty as an artist may well be yours, but that's incidental. "As an artist" still refers to the subject in either case. Commented May 6, 2018 at 22:56
(I originally said the following in a series of comments, then thought I should turn it into an actual answer.)
It is not a dangling modifier. A dangling modifier confuses subject with object. That is not the case here. There is a clear subject (you) who can perform an action (checking for defects) on an object (the products).
A possible version of this, that would be an example of a dangling modifier is:
Having checked for defects, the products were assembled.
That's wrong because it implies that the products were doing the defect checking, not you.
In your sentence, as an assembly worker is simply a subordinate clause.
answered May 6, 2018 at 20:40
