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Them referred unambiguously

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by kv_ajay » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:27 pm
By a narrow margin, the Board of Directors granted the corporation's top executives additional discretion permitting them to authorize without Board approval mergers and acquisitions of companies valued at less than $50 million.

(A) permitting them to authorize without Board approval
(B) for them to authorize without Board approval
(C) for authorizing the completion without Board approval of
(D) that permits it to authorize without Board approval the completion of
(E) that it can authorize without Board approval the completion of

OA - A

My question: Explanation for this question states - In this sentence, the noun discretion is appropriately modified by a participial phrase beginning with permitting. The pronoun them refers unambiguously to top executives, agrees with this plural antecedent, and is in the proper objective case (them is the object of the participle permitting). Permitting... to authorize follows the idiomatic structure permit + infinitive. There are no apparent errors in this sentence.
How does them refers to executives unambiguously...unless u read the whole sentence and now from meaning you know that 'them' refers to executives...
I see lot of explanations stating them it refers unambiguously but i do not know what is the reasoning behind that claim...

Thanks for your replies..
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by vivek.kapoor83 » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:43 pm
Keep it simple -- DE..out as 'it ' is wrong
BC - discretion for is unidomatic
So left with A and i see no prob with A.
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by kv_ajay » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:52 pm
I have no problem with A either. What i am asking is why "them" is referring to top executives unambiguously.

Not specific to this question but trying to find out how people decide on pro noun referring plural noun unambiguously when two of those exist.
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by karmayogi » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:51 pm
I am not sure, why you feel 'them' is used ambiguously. My guess is, you are confused whether 'them' is referring to 'the Board of Directors' or 'top executives'. However, 'the Board of Directors' is singular. Hence, 'them' unambiguously refers to 'top executives'.
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Re: Them referred unambiguously

by iamcste » Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:57 am
kv_ajay wrote:By a narrow margin, the Board of Directors granted the corporation's top executives additional discretion permitting them to authorize without Board approval mergers and acquisitions of companies valued at less than $50 million.

(A) permitting them to authorize without Board approval
(B) for them to authorize without Board approval
(C) for authorizing the completion without Board approval of
(D) that permits it to authorize without Board approval the completion of
(E) that it can authorize without Board approval the completion of

OA - A

quote]

IMO A. Them is not ambigous sînce its close to "top executives in the sentence"


C, D and E all use "Completion" which adds no meaning to sentence

It could be A or B. A expresses meaning correctly. B omits "permitting"
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Re: Them referred unambiguously

by iamcste » Wed Nov 12, 2008 1:20 am
kv_ajay wrote:By a narrow margin, the Board of Directors granted the corporation's top executives additional discretion permitting them to authorize without Board approval mergers and acquisitions of companies valued at less than $50 million.

(A) permitting them to authorize without Board approval
(B) for them to authorize without Board approval
(C) for authorizing the completion without Board approval of
(D) that permits it to authorize without Board approval the completion of
(E) that it can authorize without Board approval the completion of

OA - A

I see lot of explanations stating them it refers unambiguously but i do not know what is the reasoning behind that claim...

Thanks for your replies..
If you have pronoun..

Every pronoun should have a unique antecedent as a noun or another pronoun.. Here pronoun" them" may point to both "Executives" and "board". But as its placement is near to executives and doesnt distort the meaning

If its placement could be near the board, it could distort the meaning.

"Them" in this case is correct/unambiguous

In this case , "The Board" is a collective noun and hence there is no chance for "them" to refer "The Board"
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