The participle

MISRELATED PARTICIPLES

1. 
   A participle (or participial construction) is considered to belong to the noun or pronoun that immediately precedes or follows it, and which usually, but not necessarily, is the subject of the sentence.
   

e.g. Tom, horrified at what he had done, could at first say nothing.
Romeo, believing that Julia was dead, decided to kill himself.
A man, carrying a large parcel, came out of the bus.
The boy, climbing the tree to get birds’ eggs, had a bad fall.
Climbing the tree to get birds’ eggs, the boy had a bad fall.

2. 
   Note that the participle may be separated from the noun or pronoun it belongs to by a predicate (a predicate group),
   

e.g. Jones and Smith came in, followed by their wives.
My wife had a long walk with Sally, explaining why she didn’t want the children to play together.

3. 
   Sometimes this principle is disregarded and confusion results when a participle is linked to the wrong noun or pronoun, e.g.
   

Climbing down the tree, one of the eggs broke. (The impression is that ‘one of the eggs’ was ‘climbing down the tree’.)
The right sentence: When he was climbing down the tree, one of the eggs broke.
Looking out of the window of our hotel room, there were lots of mountains. (It sounds like the mountains were looking out of the window.)
The right sentence: When we looked out of the window of our hotel room, we saw that there were lots of mountains.
Waiting for a bus a brick fell on my head (The impression is that ‘the brick was waiting for the bus’.)
The right sentence: As I was waiting for the bus, a brick fell on my head.
Compare with Russian, e.g.
Лежа в канаве, у него слетела шляпа.
Подъезжая к станции, на платформе стояло много людей.

4. 
   In complex sentences a participial clause can have its own subject, e.g.
   

Nobody having any more to say, the meeting was closed.
All the money having been spent, Paul started looking for work.
A little girl walked past, her doll dragging behind her on the pavement.