'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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/