PSAT Glitch (fwd)

[Baker, John]

        With a verb like "helped" there is no ambiguity, even without furry winged nocturnal creatures.  If we said instead "Sosa's coach helped him break the record," we know that it is Sosa, not the coach, who is being helped.  Here the noun closest to the pronoun is a modern slacker and makes no effort to take on the role of antecedent.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis R. Preston [mailto:preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 12:00 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: PSAT Glitch (fwd)


>Ys I remember when I read that "Sosa's bat helped him break the
>record" I was puzzled as to how a furry winged nocturnal creature
>might play such a role in baseball. Woe to young writers if they are
>being tutored by people whose pragmatic devices are flat-out broke.

dInIs