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Pronoun - Antecedent

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Pronoun - Antecedent

by nannunanni » Wed Oct 16, 2013 7:59 am
Please assist in grammar of passage below.

Sentiment against caste has been gathering among modern Indians for more than a hundred years. Nationalist railed against the caste system and wanted to eliminate untouchability. It was partly because of caste hindered economic advance. But it was mostly a humanitarian desire to improve the lot of the low caste and to send a clear message to the agrarian high caste that this system is inconsistent with modern society.

What is the antecedent of pronoun IT (3rd sentence).
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Wed Oct 16, 2013 1:04 pm
It's hard to say, as the sentence is missing a main verb and I am unclear as to the intended meaning. I'm assuming that the pronoun "it" has NO antecedent, but rather serves as a "pseudo subject" in a sentence that has no subject - in the same way that the "it" in "it is raining" has no antecedent, but serves as the subject for the clause.
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by neptune28 » Thu Oct 17, 2013 1:15 am
nannunanni wrote:Please assist in grammar of passage below.

Sentiment against caste has been gathering among modern Indians for more than a hundred years. Nationalist railed against the caste system and wanted to eliminate untouchability. It was partly because of caste hindered economic advance. But it was mostly a humanitarian desire to improve the lot of the low caste and to send a clear message to the agrarian high caste that this system is inconsistent with modern society.

What is the antecedent of pronoun IT (3rd sentence).
The "passage" above is pretty clunky. :? In the third sentence, "it" doesn't really have an antecedent, but needs one. Most likely, "it" is meant to refer to the opposition toward the caste system, but whether it refers to the opposition in general or to the railing by the "nationalists" against the system is anybody's guess.

My advice would be to try to analyze a passage that's more readable--or enjoy a good movie instead. ;)
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by RajeshP » Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:43 pm
I agree with Geva and Neptune. IT is a 'psedo subject'. I think you are asking this question from meaning point of view. I think Neptune is right. It should be for implicit antecedent- 'Anti-sentiment against caste'.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:20 pm
In English, it's actually very common to use "it" with no antecedent (check out the use of "it's" in this sentence!). We do this in set expressions, or to describe general states of being. Some examples:

It is raining
It's a sunny day
It's a shame that you couldn't come
It pays to learn grammar
It doesn't matter
Forget about it!
It isn't as bad as you think

In many of these examples, you can think of substituting "the situation" in for "it": "the situation isn't as bad as you think." (This doesn't really work for set idiomatic expressions like "it pays," though).

On the GMAT, you will rarely encounter "it" used as a general pronoun on SC. Almost always, "it" should have a specific antecedent. The GMAT will often turn something like "it is commonly believed..." into "scientists commonly believe..." in a correct answer. The first isn't grammatically incorrect, but the meaning is less clear.

It's not uncommon (see what I did there?) to see "it" used as a general pronoun without antecedent on RC or CR, though. In that case, don't really worry about finding the antecedent.

The example you gave was of an entire paragraph (which contained several other grammar errors), which you will never see on SC. The best way to study is from GMAT-like sources!
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