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One pronoun, so many antecedents?

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One pronoun, so many antecedents?

by vivek1110 » Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:35 am
In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the pharaoh menkaure at giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that the salt from the stone was crystallizing.


This a question from the OG, according to it, the sentence above is correct and there is absolutely no pronoun ambiguity with "THEM". I think that "THEM" could refer to chambers, visitors or tourists. How do you know what the antecedent for "THEM" is?

Help? :/
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by kvcpk » Wed Jun 30, 2010 7:23 am
vivek1110 wrote:In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the pharaoh menkaure at giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that the salt from the stone was crystallizing.


This a question from the OG, according to it, the sentence above is correct and there is absolutely no pronoun ambiguity with "THEM". I think that "THEM" could refer to chambers, visitors or tourists. How do you know what the antecedent for "THEM" is?

Help? :/
'THEM' is not referring to tourists because it is neither the subject nor object of the sentence.
Infact, THEM correctly refers to subject of the sentence - CHAMBERS

RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.

I gathered this rule from some other forum. But useful at this place.

Hope this helps!!

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by arpita@gurome » Wed Jun 30, 2010 7:40 am
The focus should be grammar as well as logic. The phrase "humidity within them", cannot refer to either tourists or visitors; it has to refer to a place. A place can be humid, the weather can be humid, but living beings cannot be humid or have "humidity" within them.

Hope that helps.
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by vivek1110 » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:20 am
RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.
This sure is useful. Thanks.
The focus should be grammar as well as logic. The phrase "humidity within them", cannot refer to either tourists or visitors; it has to refer to a place. A place can be humid, the weather can be humid, but living beings cannot be humid or have "humidity" within them.
Ofcourse the focus is grammar and logic, but the problem in SC, the makers of the test twist both up, you never know what is logically understood and what isn't. In this case, the rule which kvcpk introduced me to definitely seems to work.
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by ayushiiitm » Wed Jun 30, 2010 11:37 am
I think the following rule will help on this issue

GMAT will observe a pronoun ambiguity to be ok if both the conditions given below satisfy

1. The intended reference makes much more sense than do other possible reference
2. The intended reference is parallel to the pronoun and others are not.

Rule taken from a post on BTG

in the above sentence : chambers makes more sense (1)
and chambers is the subject and them is also the subject (2)
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by xcobrax » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:07 pm
kvcpk wrote:
vivek1110 wrote:In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the pharaoh menkaure at giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that the salt from the stone was crystallizing.


This a question from the OG, according to it, the sentence above is correct and there is absolutely no pronoun ambiguity with "THEM". I think that "THEM" could refer to chambers, visitors or tourists. How do you know what the antecedent for "THEM" is?

Help? :/
'THEM' is not referring to tourists because it is neither the subject nor object of the sentence.
Infact, THEM correctly refers to subject of the sentence - CHAMBERS

RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.



I gathered this rule from some other forum. But useful at this place.

Hope this helps!!

Praveen
Aren't the tourists the cause of the humidity?

My SC skills are horrible, even after reading the MGMAT SC guide...any suggestions?
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by kvcpk » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:40 pm
xcobrax wrote:RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.

Aren't the tourists the cause of the humidity?

My SC skills are horrible, even after reading the MGMAT SC guide...any suggestions?
moisture exhaled by tourists is the reason for humidity.

MGMAT SC should serve the purpose for most problems. I would suggest PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE..
Nothing can beat practice. Involve in the forums and have alook at the analysis of fellow exam-takers and some expert opinions. This should keep you on track.

Hope this helps!!
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by barcebal » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:47 pm
kvcpk wrote: RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.
@kvcpk,

I want to make sure I understand this well.

So since tourists and visitors are neither (1) the subject (which is chambers) nor (2) direct object (can't find one because it's in the passive voice))... neither tourists nor visitors create ambiguity?
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by kvcpk » Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:08 pm
barcebal wrote:
kvcpk wrote: RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.
@kvcpk,

I want to make sure I understand this well.

So since tourists and visitors are neither (1) the subject (which is chambers) nor (2) direct object (can't find one because it's in the passive voice))... neither tourists nor visitors create ambiguity?
You are right!
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by hanspaul » Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:14 pm
RULE: If a noun is neither subject or object of main clause/sentence then it doesn't introduce pronoun ambiguity in that sentence.
The above rule contradicts with the explanation provided by the official answer explanations. In the incorrect answer D, as shown below, official explanation describes "them seems to refer to tourists". In this sentence structure, "them" is an object just like the correct answer.

In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the
Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for
cleaning and repair
because of moisture that was exhaled by
tourists raising the humidity within them to levels
so high as to make the salt from the stone
crystallize
and fungus
was growing on the walls.
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by sodha.rakesh » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:53 am
Hi,

Sorry for posting the basic question! I am not good at grammar :(

As per my understanding the pronoun 'THEM' is a person personal pronoun which should refer to the people and not to the things

Anybody, please help me to understand how 'THEM' could refer to the CHAMBERS? :shock:
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by nileshdalvi » Sat Dec 24, 2011 9:28 am
It is correct that them refers to tourists in C and D whereas it refers to chambers in E.

Notice C"

because tourists were exhaling moisture, which
had raised the humidity within them to levels
such that salt from the stone would crystallize

Here, the clause starting with because is followed by a non-restrictive clause starting with which
modifying moisture. Now, the pronoun them clearly refers to the noun/subject of the preceding clause (closest)which has tourists as the subject. This is the reason why OG says (Th e pronoun them seems to refer to tourists,which is nonsensical;). The OG explanation is not incorrect.

About D:

because of moisture that was exhaled by
tourists raising the humidity within them to levels
so high as to make the salt from the stone
crystallize

Again raising modifies the closest noun which is tourists and because the participial phrase is modifying tourists, it is quite evident that the pronoun them should belong to tourists.


About E:

because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised
the humidity within them to such levels that salt
from the stone was crystallizing


The pronoun them is included in the clause starting with because and the preceding clause has the subject chambers. So pronoun them appropriately refers to it. Visitors and tourists are object of prepositions.
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by vietmoi999 » Sun Aug 18, 2013 9:08 pm
ayushiiitm wrote:I think the following rule will help on this issue

GMAT will observe a pronoun ambiguity to be ok if both the conditions given below satisfy

1. The intended reference makes much more sense than do other possible reference
2. The intended reference is parallel to the pronoun and others are not.

Rule taken from a post on BTG

in the above sentence : chambers makes more sense (1)
and chambers is the subject and them is also the subject (2)
we do not need these 2 rules. we can not remember them in the test room.

think this way


pronoun ambiguity is not absolute rule. PRONOUN AMBIGUITY CAN BE CORRECT THOUGH NOT PREFERED. pronoun ambiguity can be acceptable it there is no better choice.

I already write about CORRECT BUT NOT PREFERED in gmatclub . do searching to see what I write and clear your doubt about some patterns on gmat.
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