Pronoun and Antecedents - TTP Flashcards
What is wrong with the below sentence?
In a fit of anger, Jane poured the water from the wase and threw it
The issue with the sentence is the ambiguous meaning of ‘it’. Is it the vase which Jane threw or the vase. One way to resolve the ambiguity is to use the actual noun
What is wrong with the below sentence?
The collapse of the country’s economy has resulted in a tightening of the military’s grip on key resources such as gold and oil, although the extraction and export of it has slowed to a tickle.
The problem with the sentence is ‘it’ can refer to ‘gold’ or ‘oil’. So one way to solve it by using the actual noun instead of the pronoun
What is wrong with the below sentence?
The foundation was set up to fund expeditions for researching the lifestyles of gorillas, as they have been becoming rather rare.
Are ‘expeditions’ becoming rare or the ‘gorillas’ becoming rare?
Sometimes, even when there are multiple nouns in a sentence to which a pronoun in that sentence could conceivably refer, which noun is the referent of the pronoun may be clear because meaning indicates which noun the pronoun refers to e.g.
After the antique clock that had been sitting on the shelf collecting dust was cleaned and adjusted, it worked well, telling the time and chiming every half hour
One more e.g. is
Since the musicians have gotten great reviews and have been invited to perform at multiple festivals, they are quite happy with the progress that they have made
In this sentence ‘it’ clearly refers back to the noun ‘clock’, even though the sentence contains multiple nouns and the reason for it is because logically other nouns won’t make sense for e.g. neither shelf nor dust can tell the time and chime every half hour
In the second sentence even though multiple nouns exist, ‘they’ logically refers to ‘musicians’ as ‘reviews’ or ‘festivals’ can’t be happy
What is wrong with the below sentence?
While many of the plane’s passengers felt that they had received the wrong meals because of errors made by flight attendants, the airline didn’t receive any complaints about them.
The pronoun ‘them’ has three possible antecedents: “meals”, “errors” and “flight attendants”. Thus usage of pronoun is ambiguous
What is wrong with the below sentence?
- The orchard’s production is high but selling them is easy?
- The no. of grams of Colombian gold sold annually in the world gold markets has increased each year since 2005, illustrating the market’s conviction that high-quality gold that is mined there
3, Unlike some other schools in the area, the public high school actively encourages its students to seriously pursue extracurricular activities, even requiring students to choose it at the beginning of each semester
- Previously, animals of only a few species were known to be able to count object, but now it is substantial
- Years of people’s smoking in Grand Central Terminal in New York left the ceiling covered in dark residue, its magnificent color and designs obscured just like that, until the terminal was restored in 1903
- The pronoun “they” don’t have any logical noun to which it can refer to, it cannot refer to ‘orchard’ as it is not the ‘orchard’ that is being sold.
- Pronoun “there” does not have any logical noun to refer to, it cannot refer to ‘Colombian’ because it is acting as an adjective in the sentence and is not the noun
- Pronoun ‘its’ can refer to ‘high school’ but ‘it’ does not have anything to refer back to
- ‘It’ cannot refer back to plural ‘species so there is no noun for it to refer back to
- There is no noun to which ‘that’ can refer to, hence the sentence is not correct
The special case of “the expletive it”
- Although the project was challenging. it was clear that the team was making progress
- In the first sentence ‘it’ may seem to lack a referent but when the pronoun ‘it’ is used in the above fashion it is called “the expletive it”. In this sentence “it” stands for the noun clause “that the team was making progress”. In fact, the sentence would work if we replace “it” with the noun clause as in :
Although the project was challenging. that the team was making progress was clear
What is the difference b/w the below two sentences?
Some people are convinced that for people experiencing chronic or severe illness to heal by using mediation and other mind-body method is possible
vs
Some people are convinced that it is possible for people experiencing chronic or severe illness to heal by using mediation and other mind-body methods
More e.g.
Whenever Jim sings, that he really enjoys performing is apparent (uses normal subject placement)
Whenever Jim sings, it is apparent that he really enjoys performing(delayed subject placement)
In the first sentence, we have a delayed subject, so we have to read it completely to understand what the sentence is about while in the second sentence we have used “it” in the expletive form and notice how that we know what the sentence is all about. So in the second subject the ‘it’ refers to the delayed subject and whenever “it” is used in such form we will have a delayed subject in the sentence and if not then probably the usage of ‘it’ is not correct
What is wrong with the below sentence?
- A student could mess up and fail their test for many reasons
- Each of the theories was examined, and then it was categorized according to the degree of plausibility
- Anyone can make a difference in their community when working alone, but effecting change is often easier when one is working as part of a like-minded collective
- ‘their’ is a plural pronoun and cannot refer back to singular noun student, it should be either ‘his’, ‘her’ if the gender is clear or should be ‘his or her’ if not clear
- ‘it’ cannot refer back to the plural theories
- ‘their’ is plural while ‘anyone’ is singular, so we should use ‘his or her’ to resolve a pronoun-noun number issue
You might come across a sentence using the incorrect form of pronouns i.e. given pronoun has three forms i.e. subject, object, and possessive. The pronoun should be used according to the role they are playing in the sentence i.e. a subject pronoun cannot be used in a place where an object or possessive pronoun is required
- On the chef’s first day, the restaurant owner and him spent hours talking about the menu
- Marty and (I/me) went to the beach
- The investigator assured the CEO that the team being sent would include the director and (they/them)
- The head of the legal department will brief my assistant and (me/I) tomorrow about any liability the company may face, but between you and (I/me). I think we’re in the clear
- In sentence 1, notice that the pronoun is part of the compound subject, so we cannot use the object form of the pronoun, so it should be ‘he’ rather than ‘him. For such kind of issues always see in what form the pronoun is being used and then used appropriate pronouns for such cases
- Compound subject form - ‘I’ should be used
- Compound object because they are receiving the action of including hence them should be used
- Compound object - so ‘me’ should be used instead of ‘I’
Also, notice that in the case of a preposition, we will always use the object form
What is the strategy to evaluate if who/whom and whoever/whomever should be used?
Replace the pronoun with he/him. If ‘he’ is correct the use ‘who’ or ‘whoever’ if ‘him’ is correct ‘whom’ of ‘whomever’ is correct. Easy way to remember this pattern is by noticing the corresponding letter ‘m’ as in ‘him’ =”whom”
Possessive pronouns and gerunds
During the meeting with the citizens, the mayor seemed to be surprised by their questioning the validity of the data
You might be tempted to believe correct wording is ‘surprised by them questioning’ the sentence is actually correctly written, with the possessive pronoun ‘their’ as the surprise was on questions belonging to the citizens
what is wrong with the below sentence?
- The term “social media” is often used to describe platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, but it is actually any form of internet communication, including blogs, wikis, and more
- People often say brand name Coke when they are ordering in a restaurant, but what they actually are asking for is any Cola
- In the sentence the pronoun ‘it’ refers to the ‘term social media’ and not ‘social media’, which is illogical use of the pronoun, hence the sentence is not correct
- In this sentence it refers to the ‘brand name Coke’ not ‘Coke’, hence the pronoun - referent is illogical and not correct
What is wrong with the below sentence?
- Rich roll, once an unhealthy corporate lawyer, he decided to change his life at age 40
- In the sentence ‘he’ is not required and is redundant, you can see it more easily if you cross off the modifier ‘once an unhealthy corporate lawyer’
What is wrong with the below sentence?
- I wish the bread section were at the front of the store, so that I could purchase it more conveniently
- Jason was nervous about the chemistry exam, because it was not his best subject
- Here the ‘it’ wants to refer to bread but it can’t because ‘bread’ is acting as an adjective in the sentence, so ‘it’ refers to the section but then the sentence won’t make sense as it is not the section that we go off and buy in a store
- ‘Chemsitry’ is used as an adjective here and the pronoun ‘it’ cannot refer back to ‘Chemistry’ for that reason and ‘it’ cannot refer to ‘exam’ because it won’t make any sense logically then
