PSAT Glitch

[Baker, John]

        Interestingly, in the sentence with the ambiguity, "Toni Morrison's sister left one of her books on the desk," even the grammars recognizing a rule against possessive pronominal antecedents universally agree that it does not apply.  In their view, a possessive pronoun (and only a possessive pronoun) can be used with a possessive antecedent.

John Baker


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Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 2:59 PM
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Subject: Re: PSAT Glitch


In the particular example cited ("Toni Morrison's genius enables her to
create novels that arise from and express the injustices African Americans
have endured"), one has to take into account not just the semantic features
of the inflected NP, "Toni Morrison's," but also those of the head noun,
"genius," (and, often, the verb) in order to determine the true antecedent.
Had the sentence been, "Toni Morrison's sister left one of her books on the
desk," then, the antecedent would not be so clearcut.  The point of the rules
, or generalizations, proposed in these earlier grammar textbooks was, I
think,  to give students a tool which they could used to apply in most
instances.

                                 P-A-T