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Only possessive noun in the sentence

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Only possessive noun in the sentence

by Ikonik » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:49 am
Consider the sentence:

Once you give the steering wheel to him, Antony's natural driving skills take over.
There is no 'Antony' in the sentence... So shouldn't it be more like:
Once you give the steering wheel to Antony, his natural driving skills take over.
I think this is correct. But what about this:

Antony's mother noticed that a button was falling off his coat, so she fixed the coat.
This is given to be correct! Well 'she' makes sense, but I am confused - how can we get away with his coat when the noun Antony is not in the sentence?
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by SUHAILK » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:16 am
I think in the first sentence we have a modifier which modifies Antony and hence clarity is required on noun, which pronoun in the modifier refers to..

Where as in second sentence it clear that his refers to Antony...


Ikonik wrote:Consider the sentence:

Once you give the steering wheel to him, Antony's natural driving skills take over.
There is no 'Antony' in the sentence... So shouldn't it be more like:
Once you give the steering wheel to Antony, his natural driving skills take over.
I think this is correct. But what about this:

Antony's mother noticed that a button was falling off his coat, so she fixed the coat.
This is given to be correct! Well 'she' makes sense, but I am confused - how can we get away with his coat when the noun Antony is not in the sentence?
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by VivianKerr » Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:32 pm
Yes, in the final sentence, we know the mother is a woman, so there is no confusion as to who "his" refers to, since Anthony is the only male in the sentence.
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