Hi Experts,
Can the object of preposition be the antecedent of a personal pronoun?In
OG 2019, Q761 has all answer choices with a singular pronoun (it) rejected, with the explanation that a pronoun cannot take an object of preposition as an antecedent. In the sentence "Fossils of the arm of a sloth...", any reference to the sloth should be restated according to OA.
However in
OG 2019, Q761 has the phrase "The eyes of the elephant seal...", and the OA contains "... allowing it to hunt efficiently", with "it" referring to the "elephant seal" that also happens to be the object of a preposition. The OA also explicitly states that 'it" has the correct antecedent (elephant seal).
What is the rule governing the antecedent of personal pronoun wrt object of preposition?ps: I am aware that object of prepositions can be the antecedent of relative pronouns (which / that). Asking specifically for personal pronouns (it / she / he). I also got both questions right based on other grammatical rules. Want to know specifically about this contradiction(?) in OA.
Quoted segments of
OG below for your easy reference.
Thanks in advance!
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[
OG 2019]
759.
Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.
A. Wrong: Because sloth is the object of a preposition and not the subject of the sentence, there is no reasonable antecedent for the pronoun it, in this construction, the subject of made is fossils, but it makes no sense to say that the fossils made it the earliest known mammal.
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[
OG 2019]
761.
The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depth of between 300 and 700 meters.
A: Correct. The subject of the comparative phrase is correctly those of any other animal yet tested, the plural verb do correctly agrees with this subject (those), and the singular pronoun it correctly agrees with its antecedent (elephant seal).