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Pronoun inside Prepositional Phrase?

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by IWillGetMyLifeBack » Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:37 am
I have a doubt, I know Subject can't reside inside the preposition phrase. Does it hold true for pronoun also? I mean suppose we have a following sentence..

Although the sting of the red hermit gnats is rarely fatal, it causes chronic allergic reactions and poses the greatest danger to children, who are particularly vulnerable to its venom.

Is the above sentence correct? I mean ITS refers to what? Sting? Or do we need to rewrite the sentence?
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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:21 pm
There is only one thing that its refers to - only one singular noun that is non human- the sting. Therefore, we know what its refers to. An ambiguity occurs when we do not know what a pronoun refers to, ie there is more than one noun to which the pronoun can refer.
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by IWillGetMyLifeBack » Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:22 am
Isaac@MasterGMAT wrote:There is only one thing that its refers to - only one singular noun that is non human- the sting. Therefore, we know what its refers to. An ambiguity occurs when we do not know what a pronoun refers to, ie there is more than one noun to which the pronoun can refer.

Thank you for the reply I understand completely that ambiguity occurs when a pronoun have more than one antecedent but isn't it the gnats' venom or the Sting's venom? I mean is the sentence correctly written?
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by sameerballani » Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:49 am
IWillGetMyLifeBack wrote:
Isaac@MasterGMAT wrote:There is only one thing that its refers to - only one singular noun that is non human- the sting. Therefore, we know what its refers to. An ambiguity occurs when we do not know what a pronoun refers to, ie there is more than one noun to which the pronoun can refer.

Thank you for the reply I understand completely that ambiguity occurs when a pronoun have more than one antecedent but isn't it the gnats' venom or the Sting's venom? I mean is the sentence correctly written?
I feel its refer to The Sting's venom
because it refers to the sting
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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:40 am
Gnats is in Plural (as originally written) so the its refers to the only singular noun there, the sting.
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by IWillGetMyLifeBack » Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:02 am
Isaac@MasterGMAT wrote:Gnats is in Plural (as originally written) so the its refers to the only singular noun there, the sting.
Thank you for the reply.
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by magicalhat » Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:26 am
isn't it true that the GMAT prefers that pronouns not refer to nouns embedded in prepositional phrases?
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