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OG pg. 730 #91

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OG pg. 730 #91

by OneTwoThreeFour » Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:53 pm
Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are
in the world, partly because of the dif�culty of
distinguishing between a language and the
sublanguages or dialects within it, but those who have
tried to count typically have found about �ve thousand.

(A) and the sublanguages or dialects within it, but
those who have tried to count typically have
found
(B) and the sublanguages or dialects within them,
with those who have tried counting typically
�nding
(C) and the sublanguages or dialects within it, but
those who have tried counting it typically �nd
(D) or the sublanguages or dialects within them, but
those who tried to count them typically found
(E) or the sublanguages or dialects within them,
with those who have tried to count typically
�nding

Answer is[spoiler]a. My question is the usage of "it" in the sentence. The reason "it" refers back to the antecedent "language" is because the structure is "between x and y or z within p." Thus, any pronouns substituting for "p" would refer back to the antecedent "x." Is this correct? Is this always correct in English? Any pronouns that come after "within" would refer back to the first antecedent following the word, "between." [/spoiler]
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by VivianKerr » Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:20 pm
Would any pronoun for p refer back to x? My answer is "yes" but with this caveat: pronouns must have antecedents, but clarity and logic dictate placement must more often than structure does.

"it" can only logically refer back to "language" since dialects and sublanguages are part of "language." What is most vital to the structure here is the preposition "within." I would be careful not to try and extrapolate placement rules in this way - take each sentence individually. Here, however, you are correct that "within" indicates that "x" is what is referred to by "p."

BTW, you probably noticed that the phrase "partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing between a language and the sublanguages or dialects within it" is a very long appositive phrase.

If we took it out, the sentence would read: Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, but those who have tried to count typically have found and five thousand.

I always try to mentally remove appositives in long GMAT SC's.
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by OneTwoThreeFour » Wed Feb 16, 2011 2:19 pm
Thanks Vivian! That was very helpful. I guess the best way to tackle this problem is to remove the long appositive, and then analyze wether or not the sentence is structurally sound. If it's and all the pronouns correctly refer back to the correct antecedents, we can assume the sentence is most likely correct, and select A. If we are running on sufficient time, we can quickly glance at the other answer choices and then move on.
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