'My dog moaned, its tail stuck between its legs.'

There are two ways you can interpret the verb here -- as a nonfinite
past participle or as a finite simple past tense form (anybody have
trouble with that terminology?) The interpretation as nonfinite past
participle seems the most likely, rendering the adverbial analysis Herb
Stahlke suggests, or the nominative absolute analysis others suggest.
This would mean that this is not a case of comma splice, since the
nonfinite clause cannot be an independent clause.

The second (and to me less likely) reading would render it a comma
splice, as a finite (or tensed) reading of the verb would render the
clause independent, and you'd have two juxtaposed independent clauses.

I think Ed is being a little hard on those of us who train teachers.
Skill in grammar takes a lot of time and practice to develop, and one
quarter or one semester of grammar is probably not enough for most
college students. But it is very difficult, in the current climate, to
convince teacher ed programs that teachers should have at least a full
year of training about language, including not just grammar but other
things, such as language acquisition. Add to this another fact: in many
states, entry-level teacher salaries are low, and teachers are
overworked. The profession is having trouble attracting and keeping
really bright people, especially in the poorer districts. The result is
that a lot of people are becoming teachers who perhaps aren't the
academic stars of their graduating classes.

My students report that my grammar materials work very well for them,
and the majority are able to pass tests on the content of the materials
at quarter's end--for instance, they can figure out whether a clause is
independent or not, and identify subjects, direct objects, etc. in
sentences. But I'd be willing to bet that this knowledge fades with just
a little time, and that if I were to re-test those people a year later
most of it would be gone unless they had a chance to do a good review,
or they had been working with grammar regularly since taking my class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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