Manhattan Book Pronoun Chapter Doubt

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 am; Thanked: 36 times; Followed by:2 members

Manhattan Book Pronoun Chapter Doubt

by goelmohit2002 » Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:36 pm

Hi All,

In the pronoun chapter of Manhattan it gives the following example:

"Friendship was something James truly valued so he disliked it when THEY talked about him behind his back"

Here THEY is wrong as is mentioned in the Manhattan too. Can somebody please tell to what "it" refers here ? Does this sentence has "it" reference issue too ? If no then why ?

Thanks
Mohit

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:36 pm

dgr8onerip: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 84; Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:04 am; Thanked: 3 times

Re: Manhattan Book Pronoun Chapter Doubt

by dgr8onerip » Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:16 am

goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi All,

In the pronoun chapter of Manhattan it gives the following example:

"Friendship was something James truly valued so he disliked it when THEY talked about him behind his back"

Here THEY is wrong as is mentioned in the Manhattan too. Can somebody please tell to what "it" refers here ? Does this sentence has "it" reference issue too ? If no then why ?

Thanks
Mohit

here the main error is that they refers to nothing.
The author would have intended that 'when friends talked about him behind his back'...
how can friendships talk ??
Hence it would make more sense if the sentence is restructured as; James truly valued his friends and it hurt him when they talked about him behind his back.
in the above sentence they clearly refers to friends.

i hope i cleared ur doubt

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 am; Thanked: 36 times; Followed by:2 members

by goelmohit2002 » Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:55 am

But in the modified sentence too...isn't "it" ambiguous ?

Modified sentence:
James truly valued his friends and it hurt him when they talked about him behind his back.

To what "it" is referring here ? Can "it" exist in a sentence without any antecedent too....?

Thanks
Mohit

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scoobydooby: Legendary Member; Posts: 1035; Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pm; Thanked: 104 times; Followed by:1 members

by scoobydooby » Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:05 am

refer to the following, stacey explains the use of "it" with no referent.

Stacey Koprince wrote:
one of the things that we have to know is that "it" sometimes doesn't have any referents - and that's okay. Think about "it is raining outside." What does "it" refer to? Obviously nothing in that sentence - but, in the real world, what would if refer to? Mother nature? The sky? None of those make sense. "It" isn't really referring to anything real. What about: It is worthwhile to study. What could "it" refer to there?

So there are actually cases in which "it" is used as a subject but doesn't refer to anything real - it's just a placeholder because there's no real "actor" in the sentece (the "actor" is the noun performing the verb). So if you see "it" used as a subject in a sentence, consider that it might be a "dummy subject" - and check to see. Is anyone or anything actually performing this verb? (In which case "it" should refer properly to that thing) Or is there no real "actor" who would perform this verb? (In which case "it" is a dummy placeholder and has no referent)

In this case, we've got "it will be difficult to" do something. Is there someone or something that you could actually insert into that subject? The city will be difficult to absorb them? The district will be difficult to absorb them? No - we're not talking about a real noun here. "It" is just a dummy placeholder for the idea that "it will be difficult" to do something.

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