In your opinion, what percentage of Americans support burning the Koron secretly

[el_bryanto]

Bryant

[sinkingfeeling]

1. CNN's quick vote poll yesterday had it at 17%.

[T Wolf]

2. Bigotry has lessened in this country, but by no means has it disappeared. Based on election results

somewhere close to 50% of the population is certifiable.

The only thing that holds down the percentage of people who admit to "wrong" ideas and actions is the progress that has been made that makes it slightly less acceptable to openly express these kinds of beliefs.

Know that they are still out there - in sufficient numbers to continue to cause problems.

[Enrique]

3. the usual backwash percentage n/t

[NoNothing]

4. Question is ambiguous

Secretly support burning?

Or support secretly burning?

[slackmaster]

13. Not ambiguous at all. As written, it refers to burning something in secret.

It's clearly wrong, but it's perfectly clear.

[NoNothing]

18. Yes it is

"Secretly" could be modifying either "supporting" or "burning."

[slackmaster]

20. An adverb modifies the verb that immediately precedes it (antecedent)

With the sentence punctuated as it is, "secretly" can only modify "burning".

If "secretly" fell between "support" and "burning", then it would be ambiguous.

"...Americans support secretly burning the Koron"

And it would be awkward IMO.

[NoNothing]

21. But adverbs can also modify clauses or phrases

And you have this verb phrase "burning the Koran". The ambiguity arises because "secretly" is not placed properly, so we have to guess whether it is meant to modify either "support," the principle verb in the sentence, or the verb phrase "burning the Koran."

In fact, you are wrong, according to the Chicago manual of style:

"When an adverb qualifies a verb phrase, the natural place for the adverb is between the auxiliary verb and the principal verb. Chicago Manual of Style, Sec. 5.160."

So if "secretly" is modifying "burning," then the adverb should properly go between the auxiliary verb ("burning") and the principal verb ("support"), i.e., "support secretly burning the Koran." However, adverbs should also be placed as close as possible to the thing they are modifying, so if the intention is to modify "support," putting it after the VP is not correct either. Since we cannot put it immediately after "support" (due to the prior rule), the correct placement is immediately *prior* to "support," i.e, "secretly support burning the Koran."

Therefore, because "secretly" is positioned incorrectly for *either* interpretation, we have to guess which one is meant and it is ambiguous.

[slackmaster]

22. The adverb in this case is not in the "natural" place per CMS, but it's still correct to place it...

...after the verb phrase that it modifies.

Therefore, because "secretly" is positioned incorrectly for *either* interpretation, we have to guess which one is meant and it is ambiguous.

No, you are wrong. Placing the adverb after the verb phrase is correct if awkward. The adverb as placed in the OP is a classic misplaced modifier in the context of the author's intent. It is not ambiguously placed at all because of the antecedent rule.

The Chicago Manual of Style provides best practices for many forms of writing, and those who follow it closely will produce clear, concise communication. It's not intended to be an exhaustive treatise on word usage. There are some hard and fast rules about the meaning of modifiers based on placement and punctuation. An adverb that falls after more than one verb invariably modifies the verb that falls closest to it. (Place the word "invariably" at the end of the previous sentence and it would unbiguously modify "falls" rather than "modifies".)

[Brickbat]

5. Closer to 25 percent than 50 percent.

[Warpy]

6. A fairly stable 26% of our fellow citizens can reliably be classified

as People who Believe Stupid Stuff. The bigots who think public burning of a Quran is a good idea would fall into that percentage.

There is considerable overlap with that 26% and the rest of the population, but any batshit crazy idea out there has a fairly stable 26% belief percentage among any large, random group, with few people buying every stupid idea and few people buying no stupid ideas.

There's nothing you can do about any of them but laugh at them and hope they start keeping that crap to themselves.

[realisticphish]

7. I'm not sure

25% seems about right, but I wonder how many people are in either the 25 or 75 sections who like the concept, but wouldn't actually do it, for fear of endangering our soldiers

[damntexdem]

8. Once again, can't vote because of an ad in the way. 10-25%

I take the question to mean secretly support burning, not support secret burning.

[SidDithers]

9. I support the right burn the Quran...

however, in practice, I'm opposed to the burning of any book.

Sid

[Boojatta]

10. Do you mean one of these three things?

1. Secretly support the unconcealed burning of the Koran
   
   
2. Give unconcealed support to secret burning of the Koran
   
   
3. Secretly support the secret burning of the Koran
   

[Dr. Strange]

14. Amateurs should leave polling to the professionals.

:patriot:

[el_bryanto]

15. I am deeply sorry for my failure - I really don't know how I'm going to carry on living

But I assure you you have shamed me deeply.

Bryant

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. What's the correct spelling?

I've seen it spelled 10 different ways

[SidDithers]

17. I think it's a phonetic spelling only...

like Khaddafi, or Gaddafi.

Sid

[slackmaster]

12. Automatc Rec for another novel spelling of the word, and a perfectly misplaced modifier!

:kick:

BTW, why would anyone have an issue with burning one secretly?

The whole point of burning them is to piss off Muslims. If you do it in secret, no Muslims will know!

[el_bryanto]

16. God I'm sorry - I really hate myself now. Please forgive me.

[spanone]

19. americans are free to support whatever they want...secretly or openly