[HPFGU-OTChatter] Silly question

[P. Alexis Nguyen]

zanooda:
> Here is a sentence: "The graveyard is full of the names of ancient magical
> families, and this accounts, no doubt, for the stories of hauntings that
> have dogged the little church for many centuries".
>
> My question may seem a little silly, but since there is an argument, I have
> to ask: what exactly "have dogged" that church, stories or hauntings :-)?
> Thank you!

Not a silly question at all!!!  I've rewritten many a sentences at
work just to clear up such problems (and it is an unclear sentence if
one thinks about it).  :)

When I first read this (briefly and quickly), I thought it seemed
fairly clear that the "stories of the hauntings" are what "dogged the
little church" for the simple reason that it's standard speaking
convention (because it's a rare person who speaks perfect English -
I've known a very few people in the course of my life who did, no
dangling modifiers or anything, and they all sounded very, very odd).
It could also reasonably be read as the hauntings dogged the little
church and there are many stories.  Either way, though, I think the
results are similar (because there are both hauntings and stories and
both have dogged the church).

In short, I vote for the stories dogging the church.

~Ali, who thinks that English is far and away the most difficult
language she has ever learned and that it doesn't help when things
like the GMail spell check says "hauntings" isn't a real word