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Consider the sentence:

We use a transmitter to communicate with a device that is placed in the package using a new technology.

Here, the part "using a new technology" applies to "We use a transmitter to communicate with a device" -> We use a transmitter to communicate with a device using a new technology.

However, could it sound like "The device is placed in the package using a new technology"?

If so, how to avoid the ambiguity in the phrasing?

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  • We communicate with a device that is placed in the package with a transmitter that uses a new technology.
    – Weather Vane
    Oct 24, 2020 at 15:59
  • I'd say your first analysis of your original sentence isn't accurate; 'using a new technology' may modify 'We use a transmitter to communicate with a device that is placed in the package' or .... //// Using a new technology, we use a transmitter to communicate with a device that is placed in the package. //// We use a transmitter to communicate with a device that (using a new technology) is placed in the package. or We use a transmitter to communicate with a device that is placed, using a new technology, in the package.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Oct 24, 2020 at 16:06
  • Does this answer your question? Removing modifier error
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Oct 24, 2020 at 16:13
  • Note that the attachment ambiguity is compounded by the fact that use a transmitter to communicate can be a constituent all by itself, leaving with a transmitter as an instrumental adjunct instead of a complement governed by communicate. This happens long before one reaches using a new technology, and produces many more possible parses.
    – John Lawler
    Oct 24, 2020 at 16:21
  • Using a new technology, we communicate, by transmitter, to a device that is placed in the package.
    – Nigel J
    Oct 25, 2020 at 12:29

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