Although the word phonetician is popularly associated with Henry Hig

Question

Although the word “phonetician” is popularly associated with Henry Higgins’s task of improving the diction of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, in linguistics,  it is someone who studies  the formation of language.

(A) it is someone who studies

(B) it is a person studying

(C) it refers to someone who studies

(D) they are people who study

(E) it is in reference to people who study

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GMATking94 · Answer

I would go with (A). "It" may sound ambiguous but 4 options use "It" so we can do with that. "They" in (D) makes no sense to refer to "phonetician".

bv8562 · Answer

Although the word “phonetician” is popularly associated with Henry Higgins’s task of improving the diction of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, in linguistics,  it is someone who studies  the formation of language.

(A)  it is  someone who studies -  "it" refers to "the word" and it's illogical to say that a word is someone

(B)  it is  a person studying -  Same as A

(C)  it refers to someone who studies  -  "it" refers to "the word", but in this case the sentence conveys  the word “phonetician” refers to "people"  and that makes sense

(D)  they are  people who study -  "they" has no logical antecedent

(E) it is in reference to people who study -  C is a much better construct then E

RICHA1189 · Answer

(C) it refers to someone who studies

antecedent of  it  is the word  “phonetician”

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

C

The question here is: to what does the pronoun  it  refer? You might think it refers to  phonetician , (in which case you might have thought the sentence was fine the way it was), but in fact it refers to  the word . Choices A, B, and D could give the impression that  the word  is a person or persons. Choice E is awkward, and, like choice D, needlessly uses the plural  people .  The best answer is C.

Although the word phonetician is popularly associated with Henry Hig

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the word phonetician is popularly associated with Henry Hig

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