Pronouns: Debunking Popular Myths: Intro

Hello ayan5409,


Thank you for the query.


You are correct in saying that in the above mentioned sentence, they can only refer to cramps logically.

However, the structure of the sentence is such the parallelism between the two clauses should be maintained. Hence, the original sentence is not correct as the subject of the first clause is swimming and the the subject of the second clause is they that refers to cramps.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________

As per earlier posts about "Myth 1 : A Pronoun can refer to only nearest nount", below sentence dont have any ambiguity. Here "it" and "its: refer to "manfacturerer" only.
Because an oversupply of computer chips has sent prices plunging, the manufacturer has announced that it will cut production by closing its factories for two days a month.

But if we place "computer chips" in place of "its" then that also make sence and it leads to ambiguity for second pronoun usage.

Will someone pls clarify about this.

Hello abhik1502,

I will be glad to help you with this one.

Please note that computer chips is a plural noun entity. There is no way we can replace the singular pronoun its with plural noun computer chips in this official sentence as doing so will lead to pronoun-antecedent number agreement error.

The singular form of computer chips is computer chip.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________

Thanks a lot Shraddha for answering my earlier query !

I had one more. Below sentence is from Myth4

Official Sentence 2: As its sales of computer products have surpassed those of measuring instruments, the company has become increasingly willing to compete for the mass market sales it would in the past have conceded to rivals. (OG12 #07)

Out there as per intended meaning pronoun "its" refers to company. But why can it refer to market also. Market is also singular noun out here and make sense also.

Hello abhik1502,

Thank you for the query.

Presence of multiple nouns having the same number as the pronoun does not lead to pronoun ambiguity.

Pronoun ambiguity error happens when more than two nouns makes logical sense as the antecedent of one pronoun.

Now let's talk about the pronoun reference in the official sentence that you have mentioned in your post.

The sentence Presents cause-and-effect.

Cause - Sales of computer products have surpassed the sales of measuring instruments.
Effect - The company is ready to compete with its rivals for mass market sales. This will to compete is something that this company would have conceded to its rival.

So the company has decided to compete because its sales have gone up and not the market's sales. So logically, its refer to company only.

Grammatically, its cannot refer to market because pronouns can reefer to only nouns. But in this sentence the word market has been used as an adjective. The phrase mass market presents more information about sales.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________

"The King of Greece has a son, people are afraid of him."
Can "him" refer to both "the king" and "white tiger"?

somasarkar123

Welcome to GmatClub!

We need the noun to which the pronoun refers to be present in
the sentence.

In your sentence, him is ambiguous since it can refer both
son and King.

Also the sentence structure is incorrect since we need FANBOYS to
connect two independent sentences.

Hope this helps.
_________________

Hi, I have a quick question regarding pronouns.

Was reading through MGMAT SC and one of the examples used to explain 'those, that, this, these" was:
The money spent by her parents is less than THAT spent by her children.

Which lead me to thinking, which of the following sentence structures is more grammatically correct, and why?
1) The money spent by her is less than that spent by her children
2) The money she spent is less than that spent by her children

(1) follows the parallel structure but sounds extremely awkward to me.

Thanks!

Hi,

I would appreciate if anybody could explain why the pronoun is ambiguous. As Santy pointed out, the nickname cannot move quickly. On the other hand, we know what " The Lightning" is - the tiger - so, having that in mind, it makes clear that both inputs refer to the tiger. What's wrong with this reasoning?

Thanks

Hi,

Great article!

I just have one doubt regarding pronoun-"If an antecedent is a noun having a modifier, does the pronoun refer to the noun or noun + modifier"

I believe 'it'/'its' and 'they'/'them'/their' should refer to the whole noun phrase while 'that' and 'those' should refer to the noun only. Am I correct?

Official Sentence: The intricate structure of the compound insect eye, with its hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, helps explain why scientists have assumed that it evolved independently of the vertebrate eye. (OG13 #07)

Why is in this sentence the second "it" not considered as ambigous?
Because to me the sentence would perfectly sound logical if I substitute "ommatidia" for it

"helps epxlain why scientists have assumed that ommatidia evolved ..."
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Hi egmat,

Regarding Myth 3: Antecedent of a pronoun cannot lie in Prepositional Phrase.



In OG 18 #759, https://gmatclub.com/forum/fossils-of-the-arm-of-a-sloth-found-in-puerto-rico-in-1991-and-dated-77781.html,
the official explanation for (A) is "Because sloth is the object of a preposition and not the subject of the sentence, there is no reasonable antecedent for the pronoun it;"

Blatantly, they have explained that pronoun can't refer to prep phrase. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Hello jkbk1732,

I sincerely apologize for the late revert.

Here is my take on the explanation. The official explanations, in my humble opinion, are very unreliable. In fact, they are even incorrect. This is one such explanation.

The pronoun it itself is the object of the verb made. Why cannot it refer to a noun in an object place? Choice A does not have any pronoun issue. It is incorrect because the subject Fossils does not make sense with the verb made. The fossils did not make the sloth the earliest known mammal. The age of the fossil does so.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________

Hi -
This sentence is deemed to have pronoun ambiguity because of the use of "it." egmat says that "it" can logically refer to both "Algebra" and "the concept of fractions"



However, I don't think "it" could refer to Algebra, because then the causal relationship does not make sense. How does the fact that "if a student does not have a good grasp on the concept of fractions, the student will face difficulty in understanding Algebra" lead to the conclusion "Every student must put more effort while studying Algebra"? If "it" refers to Algebra, then this bit " because if a student does not have a good grasp on the concept of fractions" is irrelevant, and the causal relationship does not make sense. I might as well replace "the concept of fractions" with "the study of the Earth" or whatever. Thanks!

King George is the ruler of the largest empire, its size as large as a continent

Here,Empire's size is compared to continent but not continent's size. The entities here aren't logically parallel right? Am i missing something here?

Hi egmat

I want to take below sentence from your myth2.
The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

I agree with usage of them.
But why "it" can't refer to administration, the sentence will still make sense.
Administration allows local school districts to spend money only on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

Kindly explain.

Hi eGMAT,

Official Sentence 2: Because an oversupply of computer chips has sent prices plunging, the manufacturer has announced that it will cut production by closing its factories for two days a month.

Why can ” its ” not refer to computer chips in this sentence? I think referring to computer chips will also make sense.