I am still confused about when do we have a pronoun antecedent problem ? the possible errors with pronoun could be ,pronoun doesn't agree in number and case with its antecedent, but still not clear on when to say the antecedent is ambiguous. For example, in the sentences below, the pronouns are correct, however, the pronouns could still potentially refer to another noun oject in the sentence.
Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.
Here they refers not to the nearby object disorders but to the subject drugs. Originally, I believed that there was pronoun problem because of "disorders" and "most corporations"
A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet, and it is believed to have been the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.
Here it refers not to the nearby object wingspan but to the subject Quetzacoatlus. However, originally thought that "it" could have referred to "wingspan" and not Quetzacoatlus"
Factory outlet stores, operated by manufacturers, are usually located miles from downtown and regional shopping centers so that they do not compete directly with department stores in the same trading area.
Here they refers not to the nearer objects manufacturers, miles, or centers, but to the subject stores. Again, I thought they could have referred to anyone of the nouns in the list.
As it is seen above, it is very easy for the pronouns used in the sentences to refer to another noun. Could you kindly explain when there is a pronoun problem, as I am unable to pick a correct rule .
Thanks
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- P
I am not an expert at SC but here is my view on this.
You have to consider the logic. What is the sentence trying to say?
For example:
THEY were banned by the FDA
Here, "they" clearly refers to the drugs b/c FDA can’t put a ban on stomach disorders.
It’s like remember there was an example in one of the MGMAT labs where you had to see the logical meaning of the sentence in order to determine the verb tenses.
It was something like this (using different words):
Bob ate, drank coffee and was enjoying the company of his friends.
Here you don’t want to change "enjoying" b/c the sentence is trying to say that Bob was experiencing something while he did all of those other things.
And in this case you have to watch what makes logical sense.
Here is where it’s hard to tell to which gerund the pronoun refers to.
Maria and Bob took Nick to the store so that he could buy jeans.
In this sentence HE could refer to Bob or to Nick.
The Reptile sentence later on in the sentence describes "it" as "the largest creature", which in this case is the reptile (Quetzalcoatlus), there are no other creatures in this sentence.
I hope this helps, I’m all out of time.
You have to consider the logic. What is the sentence trying to say?
For example:
THEY were banned by the FDA
Here, "they" clearly refers to the drugs b/c FDA can’t put a ban on stomach disorders.
It’s like remember there was an example in one of the MGMAT labs where you had to see the logical meaning of the sentence in order to determine the verb tenses.
It was something like this (using different words):
Bob ate, drank coffee and was enjoying the company of his friends.
Here you don’t want to change "enjoying" b/c the sentence is trying to say that Bob was experiencing something while he did all of those other things.
And in this case you have to watch what makes logical sense.
Here is where it’s hard to tell to which gerund the pronoun refers to.
Maria and Bob took Nick to the store so that he could buy jeans.
In this sentence HE could refer to Bob or to Nick.
The Reptile sentence later on in the sentence describes "it" as "the largest creature", which in this case is the reptile (Quetzalcoatlus), there are no other creatures in this sentence.
I hope this helps, I’m all out of time.
- RonPurewal
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here's a hierarchy of reasoning that, we've found, works nicely on gmat sentence correction problems:
(1) first, check ALL of the OTHERWISE CORRECT answers for pronoun ambiguity.
if there are any unambiguous pronouns, then you should give those somewhat of a preference.
(2) if ALL of the answer choices (or at least all of the choices without glaring grammatical errors) have ambiguous pronouns, then go with the pronouns that are grammatically parallel to their antecedents.
--
first example:
they is the SUBJECT of its clause, and some of these drugs is the SUBJECT of its clause.
stomach disorders is the OBJECT of its clause, and so would be nonparallel.
second example:
quetzalcoatlus is the SUBJECT of its clause, and it is the SUBJECT of its clause.
wingspan is the OBJECT of its clause.
same deal.
same type of thing goes for the third sentence.
--
remember to follow the above hierarchy in order: step (1) first, followed by step (2). DO NOT consider grammatical parallelism of pronouns unless you're deciding among pronouns that are all ambiguous.
(1) first, check ALL of the OTHERWISE CORRECT answers for pronoun ambiguity.
if there are any unambiguous pronouns, then you should give those somewhat of a preference.
(2) if ALL of the answer choices (or at least all of the choices without glaring grammatical errors) have ambiguous pronouns, then go with the pronouns that are grammatically parallel to their antecedents.
--
first example:
they is the SUBJECT of its clause, and some of these drugs is the SUBJECT of its clause.
stomach disorders is the OBJECT of its clause, and so would be nonparallel.
second example:
quetzalcoatlus is the SUBJECT of its clause, and it is the SUBJECT of its clause.
wingspan is the OBJECT of its clause.
same deal.
same type of thing goes for the third sentence.
--
remember to follow the above hierarchy in order: step (1) first, followed by step (2). DO NOT consider grammatical parallelism of pronouns unless you're deciding among pronouns that are all ambiguous.
- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
H Wrote:Hi Ron, sorry, could you please elaborate "pronouns that are grammatically parallel to their antecedents"?
What kind of parallisum are you referring to?
For instance, the second example has "it" and "quetzalcoatlus", why "it" isn't parallel to "quetzalcoatlus"?
Thanks in advance.
this parallelism refers to the role played by the noun and pronoun in their respective clauses: subject, object, object of preposition, etc.
actually, "it" is grammatically parallel to "quetzalcoatlus"; as noted in the post above yours, each of the two is the subject of its own clause. this is presumably why the author of the original post has posited that the sentence is "correct".
--
if the second sentence were to show up on the gmat, i have no doubt that the "it" would be omitted together (along with the comma after "feet"), as it's completely unnecessary:
A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet and is believed to have been the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.
that's better.
no pronoun needed, as "quetzalcoatlus" is the subject of both verbs.
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