<P> I saw the trailer peeking through the window . </P> <P> Presumably, this means the speaker was peeking through the window, but the placement of the clause "peeking through the window" makes it sound as though the trailer were doing so . The sentence can be recast as, "Peeking through the window, I saw the trailer ." </P> <P> Similarly, in "She left the room fuming", it is conceivably the room, rather than "she", that was fuming, though it is unlikely that anybody would interpret it this way . </P> <P> Strunk and White describe as "ludicrous" another of their examples: "Being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the house very cheap ." The author obviously meant the house was dilapidated, but the construction suggests that he (the speaker or writer, identified as "I") was dilapidated . </P>

Clause used as a modifier to the subject