PSAT Glitch

[Arnold Zwicky]

[i got to the NYT editorial page late, and discovered five examples
just in the editorials.]

5/22/03, editorial, Increasing the U.N. Role in Iraq:

 "The resolution's vagueness remains a problem but may provide an
  opportunity.  For example, it calls on the U.N...."

[note: there are three intervening inanimate nouns that might
serve as an antecedent for "it" ("vagueness", "problem", "opportunity"),
but "resolution" wins, easily, on the grounds of both real-world
plausibility and also topicality.]

5/22/03, editorial, Christie Whitman's Troubled Tenure:  *four*
examples in one short editorial:

 "Even Mrs. Whitman's voice had grown less constant and increasingly
  faint.  She arrived in Washington with...   But she soon found
  herself overwhelmed..."

 "Mrs. Whitman's announced reason's for leaving is her desire to return
  to her home life in New Jersey.  But she must surely be thankful..."

 "Mrs. Whitman's admirers say she should never have signed on with the
  Bush crowd in the first place."

 "That, of course, will be nothing more than a cynical gesture if
  Mrs. Whitman's successor ends up wielding as little power as she did."

[the whole editorial is about Christie Whitman, so of course that
discourse referent is incredibly topical.  what's interesting for students
of discourse structure is that "Mrs. Whitman" is re-introduced so
often, in a piece of writing that refers to no other woman.]

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)