isn't this a comma splice?

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1

<p>here comes a question from the official guide:</p>

<p>page 599/4</p>

<p>it's an ISE question~</p>

<p>during the labor dispute, barrels of potatoes were emptied across the (highway, and they thereby blocked it to all traffic.)</p>

<p>the answer goes like this：　（highway, thereby blocking all traffic）</p>

<p>first of all, i thought 'thereby' was not a conjunction. therefore it cannot be used to conbine two sentences.</p>

<p>howcome it does not cause a comma splice? i am so confused. or, i got this conception of comma splice totally wrong........idk</p>

2

<p>Thereby essentially means, so this happened. First of all saying “and they” just sounds wrong and it is, it just depends on tense in this case. A occurs when usually when you are wrongly using a comma to combine two sentences into one. There really is no splice here, just a tense issue.</p>

3

<p>

The underlined portion is a participial phrase. This participle modifies “barrels of potatoes,” which means that the barrels of potatoes are blocking the traffic.</p>

<p>“thereby” is an adverb that modifies “blocking.” It means “as a result.” The barrels of potatoes are blocking all traffic as a result of being emptied across the highway. In other words, barrels of potatoes spilled on the highway, and (as a result) they blocked the traffic: Barrels of potatoes emptied across the highway. Thereby, they blocked all traffic. Barrels of potatoes emptied across the highway, thereby blocking all traffic. </p>

<p>The participial phrase is not an independent clause, so it doesn’t cause a comma splice. So it can be connected to an independent clause by a comma. Here are some examples of participial phrases (underlined):
I walked down the street feeling hungry.
He tripped on the ice, thereby spraining his ankle.
She drank 6 beers, becoming too drunk to drive home, so a friend drove her home.
Participial phrases basically tell you what is happening. In the first example, the subject felt hungry while walking down the street. In the second example, the man sprained his ankle as a result of tripping on the ice. In the third example, the woman became too drunk to drive home when she drank 6 beers.</p>

4

<p>so,
“sometimes an employer does not listen closely to suggestions from employees, making workers feel undervalued.”</p>

<p>is also the use of Participial phrase?</p>

5

<p>Yes, that’s a participial phrase. Those appear frequently on the SAT.</p>