IVP - Strangely Dim - Fun with Misplaced Modifiers, or, Even Monkeys Need Editors

Fun with Misplaced Modifiers, or, Even Monkeys Need Editors

I was recently made aware of a clever blog by Rachel Held Wilson, "Evolving in Monkey Town," about the challenges of practicing faith in a postmodern era and a fundamentalist context. Or something like that. The author writes from Dayton, Tennessee, home of the Scopes Monkey Trial, which bolstered the theory of evolution as a staple of public education and played a significant role in the launch of the fundamentalist movement in the United States. The city has memorialized its moment in the spotlight with a plaque:

Here, from July 10 to 21, 1925 John Thomas Scopes, a County High School teacher, was tried for teaching that a man descended from a lower order of animals in violation of a lately passed state law.

So, here's where I reveal my inherent nerdiness and bore you with an English lesson: This sentence as constructed implies that the man who "descended from a lower order of animals"--not the high school teacher--was "in violation of a lately passed state law." So be warned, ambitious lower primates: if you're going to evolve, don't do it in Dayton. And to the school district let me offer the following advice: worry less about biology and more about grammar. (Of course, I'm biased.) For the rest of you, feel free to suggest an alternate sentence construction for the revised plaque or to chastise me for my nerdiness or lack of graciousness.

Posted by Dave Zimmerman at May 22, 2008 1:20 PM