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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 02 Oct 2019, 21:23
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rachnak82
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

The answer choice which has "he" is ambgious? as he is referring to the professor or James Baldwin? please clarify the usage of the pronoun
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rachnak82 , responding to a request.

Would you please formulate your question a bit more specifically?

Three experts have addressed this very question.

daagh's responses are here and here.


EducationAisle's response is here.

My response is directly above your post, here.

You might find upon re-reading them that the matter gets cleared up.
If not, post a slightly more specific question. I will be happy to try to help.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 31 Jul 2020, 01:51
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Hi,

Can someone please clarify the following:
In option (E): the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France, why does the pronoun 'he' refer to James Baldmin, and not the Professor?

If I were to construct a similar sentence with 'he' referring to the Professor, how would I have to do it?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 31 Jul 2020, 04:44
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Rahul2022

Can someone please clarify the following:
In option (E): the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France, why does the pronoun 'he' refer to James Baldmin, and not the Professor?
Show more
Hi Rahul2022, you are right. Technically, the pronoun he is ambiguous, since he can refer to James Baldmin or to Professor.

In case of pronoun ambiguity, application of following observation often comes in handy:

Pronoun-subject in one clause can be presumed to refer to noun-subject of preceding clause.

The two clauses here are:
i) James Baldwin wrote - James Baldwinis the noun-subject
ii) while he lived in France - heis the pronoun-subject

So, he refers to James Baldwin.

Having said that, it's worth noting that pronoun ambiguity should not be the only reason to eliminate an answer choice.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Pronoun ambiguity, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 10 Oct 2020, 14:41
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Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
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Request Expert Reply:
Q1: What does 'James Baldwin wrote' play role in choice E? Is it modifier or anything else?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 07 Nov 2020, 06:20
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abhimahna
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sir Can you please clarify why A is wrong
according to pronoun rule :his/her can refer to apostrophes and he and she can only refer to noun
but in the above sentence when we use: that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there . why can't the he refer to the baldwin mentioned

Hey StrugglingGmat2910 ,

Problem with A is that we have two nouns to which "he" can refer to.

It could be either the professor or Baldwin. Therefore, the meaning is ambiguous here. Who was living in france?

Does that make sense?
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hey AndrewN its me again :lol:

abnimahna mentions that there are two nouns in option A but doesnt option E have the two nouns :? " the professor or Baldwin" so "He" could refer to the professor or Baldwin in option E as well :?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 07 Nov 2020, 10:41
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abhimahna
StrugglingGmat2910

sir Can you please clarify why A is wrong
according to pronoun rule :his/her can refer to apostrophes and he and she can only refer to noun
but in the above sentence when we use: that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there . why can't the he refer to the baldwin mentioned

Hey StrugglingGmat2910 ,

Problem with A is that we have two nouns to which "he" can refer to.

It could be either the professor or Baldwin. Therefore, the meaning is ambiguous here. Who was living in france?

Does that make sense?


hey AndrewN its me again :lol:

abnimahna mentions that there are two nouns in option A but doesnt option E have the two nouns :? " the professor or Baldwin" so "He" could refer to the professor or Baldwin in option E as well :?
Show more
Hello, dave13. How about we look at the sentence in question?

Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin’s books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.
Show more

The real issue is that, as has been mentioned above, the verb research is not followed by a preposition. (Contrast this with the noun research, which can, in fact, use a preposition—The professor left on sabbatical to conduct research on/into [something].) I do not see an ambiguous he because the present perfect has taken precludes it. If you view the sentence as though he may refer to the professor, you get a garbled mess:

A professor... has taken a sabbatical to research... while he was living there.

If the simple past took were used instead, I could see the problem, but with has taken, I expect a present-tense is living (or lives) to agree with it. Jumping back into the past simply makes no sense.

If we compare (A) and (E) side by side, we can expose other flaws:

Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research
(A) on James Baldwin’s books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
Show more
The repetition in (A) of both Baldwin and, in a manner of speaking, France (the referent of there) is unnecessary and hampers the expression of vital meaning. For all these reasons, (A) can safely be eliminated.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 07 Nov 2020, 20:36
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Q1: What does 'James Baldwin wrote' play role in choice E? Is it modifier or anything else?
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Hi TheUltimateWinner,

"The books James Baldwin wrote" = "the books that James Baldwin wrote"

"That James Baldwin wrote" is a modifier for "the books".
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 20 Mar 2021, 03:40
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the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

Is "HE" not ambiguous?

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

It can mean...
1) A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while the professor lived in France.
or
2) A professorat the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while James Baldwin lived in France.

so why is [E] correct ?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 20 Mar 2021, 05:53
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Tanchat
the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

Is "HE" not ambiguous?

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

It can mean...
1) A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while the professor lived in France.
or
2) A professorat the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while James Baldwin lived in France.

so why is [E] correct ?
Show more
Hello, Tanchat. I have addressed this very point in an earlier post, here. In short, it would not make sense to say that a professor has taken a sabbatical to research something, a present action, and then jump into the past to talk about that same professor.

Also, pronoun ambiguity is not an automatic death sentence against an answer choice, not to mention that there may be certain grammatical nuances about the topic that you could be unaware of. See, for instance, this post by GMATNinja to a different question.

I hope you find the answer you are looking for. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 23 Mar 2021, 09:16
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Hello, Pankaj0901. I will comment on your sentences below.

Pankaj0901
Very nice explanation egmat.

I have a query. Let's consider another example:

I like the pizza that is prepared in the microwave.
"that is prepared in the microwave" - is a dependent clause.
"that" - subject; referring to "pizza".

As mentioned by egmat: If that does not act as the subject of the dependent clause it starts, it can be omitted.

This implies: "that" in the above example cannot be omitted, as it acts as the subject of the dependent clause.
Show more
The first sentence is fine, for the very reason you have stated.

Pankaj0901
BUT:
I like the pizza that prepared in the microwave.
This sentence is definitely not wrong, as "prepared in the microwave" is correctly modifying the pizza.
Show more
Now you have created a different type of sentence altogether. This sentence can mean two different things:

1) I like the microwave-prepared pizza.

2) I like the pizza to be prepared in the microwave.

If you want to stick with that, you should include its helping verb here:

3) I like the pizza that is prepared in the microwave.

Yes, we are back to square one with this third sentence.

Pankaj0901
Furthermore, my understanding is:

I like the pizza that is prepared in the microwave.
In the above example, "prepared" is not the action done by "pizza". Who prepared the pizza? (Answer: Not "pizza")

I like the pizza that contains only vegetables.
Unlike the example mentioned by egmat, wherein, the verb "contains" is the action done by "pizza". Who/What contains vegetables? (Answer: "Pizza")


AndrewN - Request your views. Is my understanding correct? Not sure if I am missing something- I was a bit confused with the examples shared by egmat when I applied the same theory to my examples.
Show more
I would not complicate the matter by turning to such considerations, the doer of an action. Does pizza need to prepare itself to use that? Of course not. You can seek to draft up a bunch of rules to cover all your bases, but it is way more fun and productive to see how such concepts may come up in questions you run across in practice... or not. (Trust me, many issues you may think are vital are more narrowly tested. Remember, you get only 14-16 SC questions on your exam, and GMAC™ likes to make those questions count by packing in a lot of potential considerations for you to mull over in each. Sometimes I do not even make it past the first such consideration because I already know that that answer choice, as well as any other answer choice that mimics the issue in question, is wrong.) Keep it simple.

I hope that helps with your concerns, at least somewhat. Of course, e-GMAT can feel free to offer any further analysis of its own.

- Andrew
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 27 Apr 2021, 20:00
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GMATNinja MartyTargetTestPrep

putting the idiom aside, is there anything else we can use to eliminate the wrong answer choices? for example, i instantly eliminated A, B and E because I felt that the pronoun "he" was ambiguous. Though I know it is not an absolute rule, it is not clear on who is living in France, so how can answer choice E be correct?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 30 Sep 2021, 22:08
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Hello experts,
VeritasKarishma, GMATNinja, @sayantanc2k,@AndrewN,@generis,@AjiteshArun, @DmitrytFarber,@MagooshExpert,@EducationAisle,@GMATNinjaTwo, nightblade354, marty Murray



I have couple of doubts about this sc question. can you please enlighten?

1. here i am confused because non underlined part 'to research' seems like infinitive and not verb. in this sentence subject is 'a professor' and verb is 'has taken', so how come two verbs are connected without any connector( IF WE TAKE TO RESEARCH AS VERB).
2. in option E, how can we be so sure that he is referring to ' james baldwin' since in option D also 'written....in france' is modifying the the books. isn't it both options conveying same idea?

Thanks in advance
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 30 Sep 2021, 23:10
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kadamhari825

1) You seem to have answered your own question. "To research" is an infinitive, not a verb. It serves as an adverbial modifier explaining why the professor has taken a sabbatical.
2) There's not really another candidate for "he." First, James Baldwin is who were are talking about in that part of the sentence. Second, the part about the professor is in the present perfect, while this part is in the past. The only way we could read "he" as the professor is to imagine that the research will be on the books Baldwin happened to be writing at some previous time when the professor was living in France. That's pretty strange, and there's no reason to go to all those contortions when there's a more reasonable interpretation. Even if we somehow like that interpretation, it doesn't fit the meaning of most of the other choices. Remember, pronoun ambiguity is only a problem if the intended meaning has not been made sufficiently clear.

As for the part about D, I don't follow your reasoning, so feel free to follow up if needed. Yes, "written" modifies the books. The problem with D is that it implies that ALL of Baldwin's books were written in France, when we should be looking at just the subset of Baldwin's books that were written in France. However, none of that affects the pronoun "he," which still refers to Baldwin. (D also has the incorrect idiom "to research on." In fact, the simplest way to solve this question is just to scan the initial idioms and cut everything but E.)
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 10 Oct 2021, 02:30
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GMATNinja VeritasKarishma


putting the idiom aside, is there anything else we can use to eliminate the wrong answer choices?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 22 Oct 2021, 23:36
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.
Show more

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
This gives us a meaning as though Baldwin is a different personality altogether distorting the meaning therefore out

(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
books can be written in French and not France , meaning error therefore out

(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
into just doesn't make any sense and is absolutely unnecessary therefore out

(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
Commas is unnecessary since sentence uses dependent clauses therefore out

(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
THe meaning and usage is perfect

Therefore IMO E
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 05 Jul 2022, 07:27
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But what if someone is not able to understand that "Reserarch" here is used as a verb? Please help.

ExpertsGlobal5
Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
walker
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• When “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + on”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “James Baldwin's books...was living there”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “books James Baldwin wrote in France”; the omission of the word “lived” incorrectly implies that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while located in France; the intended meaning is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option B incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + about”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “James Baldwin's books written while in France”; the construction of this phrase and the omission of the word “lived” incorrectly imply that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research James Baldwin's books that were written while the books were in France; the intended meaning is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + into”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + on”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun. Further, Option D uses the passive voice construction “books of James Baldwin”, rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

E: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase “books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France”, conveying the intended meaning – that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option E correctly uses the idiomatic construction “research (verb) + noun”. Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 16 Aug 2022, 08:49
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ExpertsGlobal5
Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
walker
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• When “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + on”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “James Baldwin's books...was living there”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “books James Baldwin wrote in France”; the omission of the word “lived” incorrectly implies that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while located in France; the intended meaning is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option B incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + about”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “James Baldwin's books written while in France”; the construction of this phrase and the omission of the word “lived” incorrectly imply that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research James Baldwin's books that were written while the books were in France; the intended meaning is that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + into”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + on”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun. Further, Option D uses the passive voice construction “books of James Baldwin”, rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

E: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase “books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France”, conveying the intended meaning – that the professor has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote during the period of time in which he lived in France. Further, Option E correctly uses the idiomatic construction “research (verb) + noun”. Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
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I am unable to understand how "to research" is a verb here. Isn't it a to verbal?
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AhmedMoharam89
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 17 Aug 2022, 14:34
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Can someone explain what "he" refers to? the professor or J.Brown?


Either in choice A or E?

and does "he" can be used as a split?
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GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 17 Aug 2022, 19:33
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AhmedMoharam89
Can someone explain what "he" refers to? the professor or J.Brown?


Either in choice A or E?

and does "he" can be used as a split?
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Hi AhmedMoharam89,

He refers to James Baldwin in option E. The intended meaning cannot be that the professor took a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while the professor lived in France.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 17 Sep 2022, 07:40
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GMATNinja Can you please explain why answer choice A is incorrect .
Is it only because of non idiomatic construction ?
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