antecedents

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 18, 2006, at 11:17 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> At 01:32 PM 7/9/2006, AMZ wrote:

>> ... the fact is that huge numbers of personal pronouns are
>> potentially
>> ambiguous in their reference, but this is rarely a problem.  which
>> means that handbook advice to avoid ambiguity of reference for
>> pronouns is remarkably unhelpful; this is tantamount to telling
>> people to avoid pronouns, period...
>
> For the past several years I've had students who in fact tell me
> they were
> taught not to use pronouns in writing.  The result is a constant
> repetition
> of nouns where pronominal substitutions would have been perfectly
> comprehensible.  Most annoying.

it is to weep.  i begin to think that by now I've Heard It All.  and
then along comes something like this.

surely a SOTA.

arnold

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