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Pronoun ambiguity- Manhattan SC guide

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Pronoun ambiguity- Manhattan SC guide

by winnerhere » Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:47 am
1) Well informed people know that Bordeaux is a french region whose famous export is the wine that bears its name - correct sentence as per Manhattan guide

In the above sentence - its can refer to wine isnt it?

2)Confronted by Radical changes in production and distribution, modern Hollywood studios are attempting various experiments in an effort to retain their status as the primary arbiters of movie consumption - again correct sebntence as per manhattan

In the above sentence their can represent experiments too isnt it?

GMAT in 2 weeks . Please help.

Thanks,
Sai
Last edited by winnerhere on Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:03 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by Frankenstein » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:00 am
Hi,
When you are in doubt about pronoun reference, go for the meaning of the sentence. If their refers to experiments sentence doesn't make sense.
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by Ashley@VeritasPrep » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:02 am
Hey Sai,

The good thing about SC on the GMAT is that your job is always only to pick the best option -- not to determine whether that best option is actually perfect.

Your sentences highlight the imperfect correspondence between logical clarity and grammatical clarity. Logically the pronoun referents are clear in both of your sentences, but grammatically, you're right, they're ambiguous in both cases.

Whereas a grammatical ERROR (such as a subject-verb clash or the use of a singular pronoun in reference to a plural antecedent) is NEVER okay, a grammatical *ambiguity* (which is not the same thing as an error) can be let slide oftentimes as long as the meaning is clear.

On the GMAT, if you had as options versions of these sentences that were clear not only logically but also grammatically--and if these options weren't marred by any other grammatical errors--those would certainly be your best options. However, if no such options are present, it's likely that all the other answer choices will feature actual grammatical ERRORS, and in that case, both of these sentences will be acceptable.

Hope that helps!
Last edited by Ashley@VeritasPrep on Wed Jul 06, 2011 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by e-GMAT » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:04 am
In both sentences, the pronoun reference is clear and there is no ambiguity associated with it.
In sentence 1, even though "wine" is a singular noun and could be a possible antecedent, logically this reference will not make sense. That is, it will not make logical sense to say - Bordeaux is a French region whose famous export is the wine that bears wine's name.

Similarly in sentence 2, it does not make sense to say that abc are attempting various experiments in an effort to retain experiments' status...

Let the meaning guide you. I suggest you view the following to gain more clarity on this concept.
Register at e-GMAT and access "Pronoun" concept. This concept is available free of charge and the example of car and tree clearly show how pronoun reference is purely contextual. Furthermore, check out the following post:
https://e-gmat.com/blogs/?p=261

Good luck for your exam.
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by winnerhere » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:11 am
Ashley@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey Sai,

The good thing about SC on the GMAT is that your job is always only to pick the best option -- not to determine whether that best option is actually perfect.

Your sentences highlight the imperfect correspondence between logical clarity and grammatical clarity. Logically the pronoun referents are clear in both of your sentences, but grammatically, you're right, they're ambiguous in both cases.

Whereas a grammatical ERROR (such as a subject-verb clash or the use of a singular pronoun in reference to a plural antecedent) is NEVER okay, a grammatical *ambiguity* (which is not the same thing as an error) can be let slide oftentimes as long as the meaning is clear.

On the GMAT, if you had as options versions of these sentences that were clear not only logically but also grammatically, those would certainly be your best options. However, if no such options are present, it's likely that all the other answer choices will feature actual grammatical ERRORS, and in that case, both of these sentences will be acceptable.

Hope that helps!
Thanks a lot Ashley - it helps to me NOT to strike off any grammatically ambigous sentences on first sight.

As a strategy I will strike off the grammatically wrong sentences and just keep the ambiguous sentences for the final shoot out...a good strategy?
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by winnerhere » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:36 am
e-gmat,

Thanks a lot..that was really helpful :)
Last edited by winnerhere on Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Ashley@VeritasPrep » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:51 am
winnerhere wrote:
As a strategy I will strike off the grammatically wrong sentences and just keep the ambiguous sentences for the final shoot out...a good strategy?
Yes, a very good strategy indeed!
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