deck out

Yea Stacy I'd guess it does. At first one might suppose it modifies "wild-beast show" but the comma suggests otherwise

Nope, Stacy, it doesn't.


A certain rakish air about these oncoming road-craft proclaimed them as belonging to a travelling wild-beast show. The wild beast show was decked out in the rich primitive colouring that one’s taste in childhood would have insisted on before it had been schooled in the artistic value of dullness.

A certain rakish air about these oncoming road-craft proclaimed them as belonging to a travelling wild-beast show, [which/that was] decked out in the rich primitive colouring that one’s taste in childhood would have insisted on before it had been schooled in the artistic value of dullness.

JTT I'm continually impressed by your scholarship.

Per your implication trouble is one of number But wouldn't you agree that at least at first glance the intended meaning could also have been achieved by omission of the comma

Or keeping the comma Stacy might have written, eg, "…the wild-beast show, decked out as it was in…"

I don't understand you here, Dale.



I may be mistaken, but you might be operating under a notion about commas/relative clauses that is not completely justified.



I don't believe this was written by Stacy.

Decked out is a term used in the UK meaning to be decorated/dressed in a certain style. In this case you could substitute 'painted' but it wouldn't give the sense that it was decorated to look special.

As in the following.


http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/88634/

Which in this case means dressed up in jewels that sparkle as much as a Christmas tree.

Per your implication trouble is one of number

Based onThus the comma seems to imply singular

"…the wild-beast show, decked out as it was in…"

No of course, my apologies to Stacy. Forgive a lazy old fart for omitting explanatory words or phrases, etc

ORIGINAL: On turning a corner out of a narrow coppice-bordered lane into a wider road that sloped steadily upward in a long stretch of hill Elaine saw, coming toward her at no great distance, a string of yellow-painted vans, drawn for the most part by skewbald or speckled horses. A certain rakish air about these oncoming road-craft proclaimed them as belonging to a travelling wild-beast show, decked out in the rich primitive colouring that one’s taste in childhood would have insisted on before it had been schooled in the artistic value of dulness.

=======================

Dale: Per your implication trouble is one of number

jtt:I don't understand you here, Dale.

Based on

….road-craft proclaimed them (plural) as belonging to a travelling wild-beast show….. (singular)…..not completely justified.
Thus the comma seems to imply singular

"…the wild-beast show, decked out as it was in…"

==================

I don't recall suggesting/implying that the trouble was/is one of number, Dale. And I don't now see any trouble as regards number.

I may be mistaken but I think it is far beyond the capacity of a simple comma to state, let alone imply grammatical number.

I'd say that the indefinite article 'a' is what describes singular.

Maybe I haven't stated it as succinctly as a grammarian might have

…where the comma implies mod by "decked out" of the plural "road craft", but clarified in accordance with your suggestion concluding #…..651 verifying it to modify the singular "show"

Likek so much a2k confusion, semantical

You only have to explain it as well as you can to portray the idea you see represented by the comma, Dale.

…which I hope my #….194 accomplishes. Sorry if you might have replied before my last edit

Clearly you're quicker than I

Problem solved then, Dale?