In Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe, a character asserts that when one is under extreme stress, "you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety." In that clause, "without impropriety" is an adverbial phrase, modifying a verb.

Question:
But what verb does it modify? Are you sure? Explain your view.

Choices:
it modifies "use" -- "use without impropriety"
it modifies "choose" -- "choose without impropriety"
it modifies "indulge" -- "indulge without impropriety"
it's ambiguous
I'm confused

 

If the verse were to read, "use any language without impropriety" then the sense would be much the same as the original.

If the other verbs were used then the sense would change. Choose? Choose what? Indulge? Indulge in what?

quote:

it modifies "indulge" -- "indulge without impropriety"

That should read "indulge in" -- "indulge in without impropriety".

After being caught with his pants down, Elliot Spitzer had a dangling mortifier.

Answer: none of the above. It modifies "you." Perhaps that makes it adjectival, not adverbial.

quote:

When you're lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is tabooed by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety.

Let me be so presumptuous as to re-phrase Gilbert for clarity:
"...I conceive that, without impropriety, you may use any language you choose to indulge in..."

Let me join you in presumptuous behavior, Hab. Here's my re-phrase of Mr. Gilbert's work ... ]

"... anxiety,
In my opinion anything you say in any language will be forgiven and considered proper due to the high degree of horror that characterizes the headache and the anxiety. (We will abandon this line and move right along as soon as I find a word to rhyme with anxiety) ... "

I confess that my version still needs a little work.