nipunranjan wrote:Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels.
This was given as correct answer in one of my mock tests. My doubt is that whether the pronoun "her" is correctly referring to Agatha Christie?
The issue comes when the antecedent is possessive form(Agasta's), but later the pronoun doesn't shows possessive nature.
A possessive pronoun is needed to refer a possessive noun. A non-possessive pronoun cannot refer possessive antecedent.
Eg-1) -
Wrong: Agasta's travel was so inspirational that SHE decided to use it in a novel.
Here SHE cannot refer AGASATA's ie. something owned by agasta
Right: Agasta's travel was so inspirational that AGASTA decided to use it in a novel.
Eg-2)
Wrong: Agasta's book was such a hit that govt gave HER XYZ award.
HER is referring to Agasta's and this doesn't makes sense.
Wrong2: Agasta's book was such a hit that SHE got XYZ award by the govt.
Here SHE cannot refer AGASATA's ie. something owned by agasta. similar to example1
Right2: Agasta's book was such a hit that govt gave AGASTA XYZ award.
Use possessive pronoun to refer a possessive noun
Eg -
RIGHT: Agasta's travel was so inspirational that HER book based on HER travel was instant hit.
Similarly in original sentence her is referring to AGASTA's..
I hope this helps !!
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