Week 7

AGREEMENT: PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS

Nouns represent people, places, things, qualities, or ideas. Mary, California, car, love, and tree are all nouns.

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Pronouns represent people, places or things without naming them. They are usually used to avoid repetition.

Personal Pronoun Forms Singular: first person	I me mine my
Plural: first person	we us ours our
Second person Singular	you you yours your
Plural: Second person	you you yours your
Third person Singular	he him his his
Third person Singular	she her hers her
Third person Singular	it it its its
Plural: Third person	they them theirs their

Pronouns must refer clearly to their antecedents-words which identify the pronouns.

Doug always argues. He wants his own way.

The pronoun "he" in the second sentence clearly refers to Doug. In this sentence "Doug" is the antecedent for "he."

At times, however, it becomes more difficult to make pronoun reference clear and accurate in terms of number and gender. The collective noun is considered as one unit and calls for a singular pronoun:

Our team is going to its first state championships.

After three full days, the jury had not yet reached its verdict.

If, however, the antecedent is considered plural, the pronoun must be plural as well:

Our team ordered their new uniforms.

When the jury was polled by the judge, they were required to give their names.

When the antecedents are compound nouns joined by "and," their pronouns are plural:

The wolf and the eagle are striking in their fierce nobility.

Jan and Maria turned in their project today.

When antecedents are joined by "or" or "nor," the antecedent closer to the pronoun determines whether the pronoun is plural or singular:

Neither the father nor his sons have lost their zest for life.

Neither the sons nor their father has lost his zest for life.

Indefinite pronouns are singular. Indefinite pronouns such as "anybody," "everyone," "somebody," "each," and "whoever" may have no stated antecedent, but they can have pronouns referring to them. The problem is that of gender agreement; should the indefinite pronoun be referred to as "him" or "her"? Here are some easy examples:

The Boy Scout troop leader told everyone to bring his towel to the swimming hole.

Each of my sisters wants her turn on the phone.

The following sentence, however, presents a challenge:

My English teacher said everyone must turn in (his? her?) paper by Friday.

The writer can solve the problem in a number of ways:

My English teacher said everyone must turn in his or her paper by Friday. (Include both.)

My English teacher said everyone must turn in his paper by Friday. (Writer is male.)

My English teacher said everyone must turn in her paper by Friday. (Writer is female.)

My English teacher told us to turn in our English papers by Friday. (Rewrite.)

AGREEMENT: PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS—EXCERCISE


YOUR NAME:
YOUR EMAIL:
TODAY'S DATE:

PART I. In the following sentences, select all pronouns and their antecedents and encase each pair in {brackets}.

1. As soon as Maria and her sister arrived, their parents brought out the Christmas presents.

2. The snake, having slithered its way up a drainpipe and into the shower, frightened poor Morley out of his slippers as well as his wits.

3. If a student in the fraternity needs tutoring in math, he can call on Dominic.

4. When the policeman strode into the bar and said, "I want everybody here to show me his I.D.," Millicent sighed in relief, picked up her purse, and headed for the door, saying, "Saved by a personal pronoun!"

PART II: In the following examples choose the appropriate verb forms and pronoun forms. Be sure to consider why you are choosing the singular or plural form.

1. The Class of 1990 (has, have) raised (its, their) grade-point average to 3.3 this term.

2. Either tickets or a pass (is, are) required for admittance.

3. Either a pass or tickets (is, are) required for admittance.

4. The marching band (is, are) going to be in (its, their) fifth Rose Parade.

5. Each of the boys (has, have) taken (his, their) turn at the dishes this week.

6. Every one of the top women tennis-players (has, have) been trying to figure out how (she, they) can beat Stefi Graf.

7. Since Clarissa was elected Women's Club president, no one (has, have) turned in (her, their) resignation.

8. Neither Lily nor Jane (has, have) compromised (her, their) beliefs for (her, their) career.

PRONOUN REFERENCE

It appeals to her desire to be useful.

Medicine appeals to her desire to be useful.

Comparison of the two sentences above (both grammatically correct) should demonstrate the limited value of pronouns whose antecedents (the word or words for which a pronoun is substituted) are unknown.

In the first sentence the reader can have no certainty about what it refers to; the sentence, therefore, makes no clear sense by itself. To make some kind of sense, it needs a context, an antecedent.

Jan has always wanted to be a doctor. It appeals to her desire to be useful.

The sentence now makes some kind of sense but still not clear sense. What appeals? Not a doctor. The truth is that there is no definite antecedent for the pronoun it; there is no noun replaced by it. The use of the pronoun here has produced an instance of faulty reference.

The surest way to eliminate the flawed reference is to write "Medicine appeals . . . ." Now the sense the writer intended is clear.

1. Such pronouns as it, this, that, and which are frequently misused because many writers either do not know or forget that pronouns ordinarily require antecedents for clear sense.

Robert Merrill was an excellent singer. That was because his voice was trained.

Again, a pronoun (that) is without the necessary antecedent, so we have faulty reference. The flaw can be eliminated in a variety of ways, of course.

The most direct way would be to drop that was and join what is left to the first sentence:

Robert Merrill was an excellent singer because his voice was trained.

In the following sentence the which clause dangles pointlessly because the pronoun which has no antecedent, no noun to which it refers:

After a single glass of ginger beer, Morley ran around flapping his arms and crowing like a rooster, which was a sight to see.

The writer seems to have thought that which can refer to everything going before it (the whole picture, as it was in his mind). But it cannot and still allow the sentence to make clear sense. The sentence has to be recast.

The writer can simply drop everything after rooster, if all that is needed is the report of Morley's behavior. If a judgment is intended, the writer can add after rooster something like "making a fool of himself" or "infuriating his wife and her friends,"or the writer might add another sentence: "Apparently his tolerance for alcohol was miraculously low."

2. The second-person pronoun you often causes confusion because the writer unaccountably shifts from the first-person (I, me) reference, making the you a generalized pronoun with too-broad reference.

What bothers me about George is that you have to hide your food from him.

The writer probably means one of two things: "I have to hide my food" or "people have to hide their food." But which of the two?

3. The third-person pronoun they also sometimes leads to vagueness or ambiguity.

In some countries they impose martial law whenever there is a street fight.

Who are they? What is they referring to-the government? the military? the participants? Whatever the writer means specifically should be stated directly.

"In some countries, the government . . . ." Now the reader knows.

EXERCISE

Rewrite each of the following sentences, eliminating all instances of faulty reference.

1. Everywhere you go they have advertisements for soft drinks and junk food.

2. Sue plans to study dentistry if her uncle will pay for it.

3. All last winter Franklyn worked in the woods with his new chain saw. It really developed his physique.

4. In the book it tells about how Einstein developed his theory of relativity.

5. I don't like lending my brother money because you never know when he'll pay you back.

6. In the South they call a peanut a goober.

7. The first page of Michael's essay contained two sentence fragments, a run-on sentence, and a comma splice. This exasperated his English teacher.

8. Morley crooned Irish ballads all during breakfast, which gave Clarissa an earache

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