PSAT Glitch

[Joyce, Thomas F.]

Apologies to Messrs. Baker and Thomspon for the message I sent on this story that appeard to overlook their observations.

TFJ

-----Original Message-----
From: George Thompson [mailto:george.thompson at NYU.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 9:54 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: PSAT Glitch


This sentence seems right to me.  Can the critic see the subject as "genius" and not "Morrison", and so want the pronoun to be "it"?  If so, a bizarre analysis.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 10:22 am
Subject: PSAT Glitch

>        In today's Washington Post, there is an article about a
> purported error in the PSAT (which I believe is the Preliminary
> Scholastic Aptitude Test).  Educational Testing Service came under
> fire for scoring the following sentence as free of grammatical
> errors:  "Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that
> arise from and express the injustice African Americans have endured."
>
>        The question is not whether "injustice" should be
> "injustices"; the Post made the word plural in its account,
> apparently inadvertently.  Rather, the question is whether "her"
> is used correctly when its antecedent is the adjective "Toni
> Morrison's."  A Maryland high school journalism teacher named
> Kevin Keegan argues that this is incorrect.  The Washington Post
> article is online at
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51947-2003May13.html
>
>        Keegan's rule (for which there apparently is support in
> some but not all grammar manuals) strikes me as difficult to
> defend.  I can see no way to recast the sentence without worsening
> it.  "Toni Morrison's genius enables Toni Morrison . . ." is
> awkward, while "Toni Morrison's genius enables the writer . . ."
> is ambiguous because "the writer" may not be Toni Morrison.  Toni
> Morrison could be, for ought that sentence tells us, a literary
> agent or a prior writer like Shakespeare.
>
>        Keegan's view is not supported by the online dictionaries
> I have at hand.  The OED says a pronoun is used "when that which
> is referred to is known from context or usage, has been already
> mentioned or indicated, or, being unknown, is the subject or
> object of inquiry."  Merriam-Webster says a pronoun's "referents
> are named or understood in the context."  American Heritage says a
> pronoun "designates persons or things asked for, previously
> specified, or understood from the context."
>
>        Any thoughts?
>
>
> John M. Baker
>


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