- Reference ([20]-[23])
- Coherence ([24]-[28])
- Parallel Structure ([30]-[31])
- Consistency ([32]-[35])
- Use of Connectives ([36]-[38])
[REFERENCE]
By the use of pronouns, participles, and other dependent words, language becomes flexible and free. But each dependent part must refer without confusion to a word which is reasonably near, and properly expressed. Ordinarily a reader expects a pronoun or a participle to refer to the nearest noun (or pronoun) or to an emphatic noun.
[Divided Reference]
20. A pronoun should be placed near the word to which it refers, and separated from words to which it might falsely seem to refer. If this method does not secure clearness, discard the pronoun and change the sentence structure.
- Uncertain reference of which: He dropped the bundle in the mud which he was carrying to his mother. [The reader for a moment refers the pronoun to the wrong noun. Bring which nearer to its proper antecedent bundle.]
- Right: He dropped in the mud the bundle which he was carrying to his mother.
- Vague reference of this: My failure in mathematics was serious. My grades in English, history, and Latin were good enough. But this brought down my average. [This? What this? Five nouns intrude between the pronoun this and its proper antecedent failure.]
- Right: In English, history, and Latin I received fairly good grades. But in mathematics I received a failure. This brought down my average.
- Remote reference of it: If you want to make a good speech, take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into it.
- Right: If you want to make a good speech, take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into what you are saying. [Or, better] Take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into the speech.
- Ambiguous reference of he: John spoke to the stranger, and he was very surly.
- Right: John spoke to the stranger, who was very surly. [Or] John spoke in a surly manner to the stranger.
[Note.]—The reference of relative and demonstrative pronouns is largely dependent upon their position. The reference of a personal pronoun (he, she, they, etc.) is not so much dependent upon its position, the main consideration being that the antecedent shall be emphatic (See [the next article].)
Exercise:
- He was driving an old mule attached to a cart that was blind in one eye.
- There is a grimy streak on the wall over the radiator which can be removed only with great difficulty.
- The feet of Chinese girls were bandaged so tightly when they were babies that they could not grow.
- He gave me a receipt for the money which he told me to keep.
- After the pictures have been taken and the film has been removed, they are sent to the developing room where it is developed and dried.