Advanced Pronouns

[Markus_Maier]

In the 12th Chapter of the Sentence correction an example says "When Norma and her husband read an article about Florida's adorable manatees, they promised each other that they would one day go to Florida and see one."
How is "they" not ambiguous. As far as I know, the rule that pronouns can't reach inside possessives is only valid for the first term of the possessive, "Florida's", but it could easily refer to manatees...
The answer says there is a parallel position but what does that mean?

Thanks for help!

[Willy]

In the 12th Chapter of the Sentence correction an example says "When Norma and her husband read an article about Florida's adorable manatees, they promised each other that they would one day go to Florida and see one."
How is "they" not ambiguous. As far as I know, the rule that pronouns can't reach inside possessives is only valid for the first term of the possessive, "Florida's", but it could easily refer to manatees...
The answer says there is a parallel position but what does that mean?

Thanks for help!

I think 'they' can't refer back to manatees (only other plural noun) as further sentence makes it clear that ''they would one day go to Florida and see one''

I don't think ''manatees'' would one day go to Florida and see Norma or her husband.

What experts have to say?

[Markus_Maier]

Damn, SC is so stupid. Sometimes the GMAT indicates an odd answer alternative makes the other answer choice right and sometimes this is not the case... Any expert help?

[messi10]

Hi guys,

'they' clearly refers to "Norma and her husband".

If you read the forums and if you have watched one of Ron's Thursday sessions, you will realize that pronoun ambiguity is given too much importance by everyone.

Pronoun ambiguity is an error but you must not become mechanical in your thinking. Remember, if you simply looked at the context of the sentence, you would know that "they" clearly refers to Norma and her husband. In fact, both of you in your posts have ruled out the other possibilities.

But even otherwise, as the explanation says, you can use parallel construction:

...Norma and her husband (subject)....

they (subject) promised each other....

You can see that "Norma and her husband" are in the subject position of the first clause and "they" is in the subject position of the second clause i.e. the noun and pronoun are parallel to each other.

Hope this helps

Regards

Sunil

[RonPurewal]

If you read the forums and if you have watched one of Ron's Thursday sessions, you will realize that pronoun ambiguity is given too much importance by everyone.

hey, thanks for the shout-out. much appreciated.

yes, you should check out the session in question -- it's the MARCH 31, 2011 session:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

if you don't have the time, then the shortest possible summary i can give is this:
PRONOUN AMBIGUITY IS *ALMOST NEVER* AN ISSUE. YOU ARE BEST OFF IGNORING IT COMPLETELY.

the above study hall details the situations in which you can't ignore it, but those are EXTREMELY RARE situations (they have only appeared one or two times in the entire canon of GMAC official problems).

Pronoun ambiguity is an error but you must not become mechanical in your thinking. Remember, if you simply looked at the context of the sentence, you would know that "they" clearly refers to Norma and her husband. In fact, both of you in your posts have ruled out the other possibilities.

excellent. this is a five-star post -- well done.

use your common sense in determining the antecedents of pronouns.