<p>In general participial phrases indeed modify subjects and are therefore rightly thought of as adjective phrases.</p>
<p>As crazybandit pointed out (and on which I imprudently expanded), in certain cases participial phrases can modify the entire clause. This is why “They use a sitar on most tracks, giving their music an Eastern feel” is correct. There is no doubt, however, that the subject is “They” and not “sitar.”</p>
<p>Here’s a collection of quotes from this forum that may clarify when adverbial (which, in this case, implies clause-modifying) participials are acceptable.</p>
<p>From fresh101,</p>
<p>“‘They use a sitar on most tracks, giving their music an Eastern feel’ is definitely correct because the subject is implied and because the second part is elaborating on the first part. But that doesn’t mean you can attach two clauses just because they are related.”</p>
<p>“Silverturtle–your argument rests upon the assumption that ‘the information in the clause is not needed to make the identity of the noun before it clear,’ which is false because the real subject is 'the fact” not the “college graduates’ ,which is who we would assume as the subject, incorrectly, had there not been a second clause. So, we need that second clause to clarify the subject.”</p>
<p>“if the sentence were written ‘Giving their music an Eastern feel, they use a sitar on most tracks,’ the implied subject would be ‘they.’ If written as what was originally, ‘giving’ could refer to the whole clause. Adverbial participles modify whole clauses only because they replace words like ‘because’ and ‘which.’ But the implied is never clear unless the meaning is clear (which is why things are implied in the first place). As long as the sentence is not ambiguous like this thread’s original sentence, participles can replace a bunch of different forms. like i said before, there has (have? correct this for me. isn’t “there” singular?) to be similarities in motion.”</p>
<p>From [url=<a href=“http://teleformacion.princast.es/qstutor/resources/or000000000000001/courses/cr000000000002716/Contenidos_generales/level7/grammar/7verbpar.html]VERBS[/url”>http://teleformacion.princast.es/qstutor/resources/or000000000000001/courses/cr000000000002716/Contenidos_generales/level7/grammar/7verbpar.html]VERBS[/url</a>] (from which this sentence originated),</p>
<p>“A participle can be the first word in a clause that gives more information about another clause. They often tell you what the consequences of the first clause were. This type of clause can be seen as a reduced non-defining relative clause, so there must be a comma before the participle.”</p>