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veritas - pronoun antecedent

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by confuse mind » Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:50 am
Plays by Aphra Behn, performed by the Duke's Company, were published in England in the 1670s, making her one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing.

The explanation says that the pronoun 'her' cannot refer to 'Aphra Behn' because it is not the subject of the sentence (it's the object of the preposition "by") and thus there is an antecedent reference issue in the sentence.

I am somehow NOT convinced with the explanation. Can the experts please help me underlying rule for the same.
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by vk_vinayak » Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:12 am
confuse mind wrote:Plays by Aphra Behn, performed by the Duke's Company, were published in England in the 1670s, making her one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing.

The explanation says that the pronoun 'her' cannot refer to 'Aphra Behn' because it is not the subject of the sentence (it's the object of the preposition "by") and thus there is an antecedent reference issue in the sentence.

I am somehow NOT convinced with the explanation. Can the experts please help me underlying rule for the same.
Hi, Can you post the correct sentence as well so that we could see the intended meaning of the sentence?
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by confuse mind » Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:48 am
I have posted the sentence as well as the reasoning from their explanation. They have claimed the ditto reasoning.

I don't want to add the complete question because then the discussion around the concept will get derailed.

Thanks!
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by vk_vinayak » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:06 am
confuse mind wrote:I have posted the sentence as well as the reasoning from their explanation. They have claimed the ditto reasoning.

I don't want to add the complete question because then the discussion around the concept will get derailed.

Thanks!
Sure; I just wanted the correct answer choice for comparison.

Anyway, In my opinion, the sentence is not incorrect as such. Subject is 'Plays by Aphra Behn'; even with this subject, we could say that her plays made her famous. (the possessive pronoun 'her' is not ambiguous here, as there is no other noun/pronoun that could be referenced by 'her')

Over to experts.
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by lunarpower » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:20 am
i received a private message about this thread.

i don't really see a problem with the pronoun in this sentence. it's a bit awkward -- i.e., the sentence would be better, and certainly easier to read, if we made aphra the subject -- but i would stop short of calling it wrong.

as far as the essential characteristics of a pronoun -- (a) its meaning is clear, and (b) it matches the intended noun in terms of singular/plural -- this one is just fine.
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