At least 14 people died on Saturday after drinking a cheap alcoholic beverage, raising to 20 the number of people killed by the poisonous brew in two days, news reports said. (Taken from The Nation, Bangkok, Wed. 4 December 1991)
Would you explain the exact role of (raising to 20 the number of people~)? Is this a dangling participle or something?
Following is some of the analysis of my own. But I am kind of confused. 1) At least 14 people died ~, raising to 20 the number of people~ i) 14 people died, (which) raised to 20 the number of people ~ In this case, is it ok for me to omit which (=a relative pronoun)?
A. The phrase "raising to 20 the number of people ~" is not a dangling participle. It is a phrase modifying the verb "died." A dangling participle is found only at the beginning of a sentence. It is dangling because the word which it really modifies is not in the sentence at all. The reader expects it to modify the subject of the sentence, and when it doesn't, the sentence doesn't make logical sense. We can see how this works if we rearrange your original sentence:
Raising to 20 the number of people killed by the poisonous brew in two days, at least 14 people died on Saturday after drinking a cheap alcoholic beverage.
These are the same words as the original, but with the participial phrase at the beginning, the reader expects the phrase to modify "people." Since it doesn't, the sentence doesn't make sense.