yo4561 Wrote:For pronoun ambiguity, I am a bit confused on the examples provided in the companion guide.
The following correct example is given: "Supernovas destroy their immediate environments in vast explosions, but by synthesizing heavy chemical elements, THEY provide the universe with the possibility of biochemistry based life as we know it."
Another correct example is given: "The board is investigating the compensation packages of several executives in order to determine how much they may have been improperly awarded."
I thought the rule for ambiguous pronouns is that when you have two different clauses (first is dependent and second is independent). The second subject (the pronoun) will refer unambiguously to the first subject (the antecedent). With this said:
-In the first example, since the "but...elements" is the dependent clause, wouldn't the heavy chemical elements be what the "they" refers to? I know logically it does not make sense, but isn't this what the rule says?
-In the second example, since there is no dependent clause, how can "they" refer back to executives? Do you just rely on meaning for single independent clauses?
I am getting confused on when to apply the rule versus relying on meaning to guide my understanding on pronoun ambiguity. I may just be misunderstanding this rule, or there may be another rule I am missing. Thank you in advance!!
Here, I removed a comma between supernovas and destroy; I think it wasn't supposed to be there.
Ambiguity is tricky; it can be tough to determine where the writers draw the line between too ambiguous and acceptable. Here's how I think about it:
(1) Parallelism is the main "fix" for unclear antecedents. That's what is happening in the supernova example: main clause "supernovas destroy...environments" parallels "they provide the universe," so
they (subject) refers to
supernovas (subject).
(2) Meaning: As you note,
they also logically refers to
supernovas, whereas the other noun doesn't make sense. When both Meaning and Parallelism point to the same/correct antecedent, the pronoun is not ambiguous at all. In the second example, Parallelism wasn't helpful in locating the antecedent of they; it's ok to let Meaning be your first guide (logically, "they" must be who may have been overpaid, from among the executives whose compensation packages are being investigated by the board). In the second example, there's probably also some structural reason that "they" doesn't refer all the way back to the subject "the board"--it's probably that fact that the sentence is so long and there are too many verbs between them, but IMO, meaning is the take-away here.
(3) What do the other choices offer? In these examples, we are just picking on them in a vacuum. On the actually test, there will be 4 other choices, so after considering (1) and (2), fall back to just comparing which choice "sounds" more clear...or find a different, non-pronoun split to make the final call.
yo4561 Wrote:Second question on pronouns:
There is another correct example provided: "Mary's job is in jeopardy because of her mistake." How do you know that the mistake is Mary's? What if the "her" refers to someone else? Is the rule that when you see a possessive noun, it refers back to the noun that is made possessive?
In a stand-alone sentence like the one above, "her" can only refer to Mary, the only female in the sentence. This example is just meant to show that it's no problem that Mary is is possessive form, because
Mary's job parallels
her (Mary's) mistake. Unlike non-possessive pronouns (such as she/he, him/her (used as an object), they/them, it), possessive pronouns can have a possessive antecedent, because of this parallelism.
If we saw this sentence in the context of a whole paragraph, I think we might legitimately wonder whether "her" refers to someone else mentioned in a nearby sentence. The only way such ambiguity could arise on the GMAT SC is in an example like this:
Wrong:
For months, Mary has unsuccessfully tried to train Louise to follow standard safety procedures; Mary's job is in jeopardy now because of her mistake.The semicolon is the GMAT's way of giving you two sentences in SC, and a pronoun used in one part of the sentence could have an antecedent in the other part, thus the ambiguity here.
