Pronoun and Semicolon doubt.

[deshmukhshivani]

Hi,
I was going through a question in a source banned on this forum. Nonetheless, I have created a similar question and will ask my doubt later.( I hope I'm not breaking any rules here. Apologies if that's the case. Let me know and I'll delete this post.) Here goes:

Ray, a techie, hosts annual parties at his home, they had great food, nice entertainment and a lot of booze.
1. Same
2. Ray, a techie, hosts annual parties at his home; they have
3. Ray, a techie, hosts annual parties at his home; the parties have
4. Ray, a techie, hosts annual parties at his home, they have
5. Ray, a techie, hosts annual parties at his home, the parties have

Not sure if I did a good job there. Anyways, my questions are as follows.

1. Can "they" refer to parties since its the only logical antecedent for the pronoun?
2. Isn't the semicolon mandatory over here?
3. Does C become a better option only because it refers to "parties" specifically or does this reference make the statement redundant?

IMO ans should be B. (feel free to suggest a new better answer since I have created the QnA both) :)

Experts please help.

[shreyabisht08]

In my opinion, A is incorrect because pronoun "they" has to refer to the antecedent that is the subject of the first independent clause ( which is ray). so A incorrect. In the same way, I select B as my answer.

I am not sure if they can be used as a pronoun for parties. Do you know the OA for this answer? Source?

[RonPurewal]

"they" = parties.
totally fine.

• first, "pronoun ambiguity" is a non-issue on this exam. it is not tested at all.
if a pronoun refers to a noun, and matches that noun (in terms of singular/plural), then it's fine.

• second, even if "pronoun ambiguity" were tested (again, it isn't), there would still be no issue here, since there are no other plural nouns.

"ray" is singular, and thus is irrelevant to the discussion of "they".

[RonPurewal]

oh, and, this is the wrong folder for this query, so the thread is now locked. (this sort of thing belongs in the general verbal folder.)