about knowing who 'he' is

Question

Darwin refuted the arguments for intelligent design put forward by the 18th century English philosopher William Paley, who had greatly influenced until he visited the and saw natural selection at work.

I can see that the red colored 'he' refers to 'Darwin', not William Paley contextually. But is there any grammatical proof that verifies that 'he' can only refer to 'Darwin'? Or should I judge it only by given context?

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

Hi,
>> is there any grammatical proof that verifies that 'he' can only refer to 'Darwin'? I believe you can't be sure what "he" refers to.

>> should I judge it only by given context? Yep, I think only context can help.

Ahn · Answer

Thank you, Kooyeen [C]

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Darwin refuted the arguments for intelligent design put forward by the 18th century English philosopher William Paley, who had greatly influenced Darwin until he visited the Galapagos Islands and saw natural selection at work.

I can see that the red colored 'he' refers to 'Darwin', not William Paley contextually. But is there any grammatical proof that verifies that 'he' can only refer to 'Darwin'? Or should I judge it only by given context?

In practice, meaning, interpretation and context certainly play important parts. However, in strict grammatical terms, a pronoun is considered to represent the last-mentioned noun of that type. In this example, when you see 'he', go back and look for the last male. That gives you Darwin.

Best wishes, Clive

Ahn · Answer

Thank you for your answer, Clive!

Now I know the grammatical ground to support it

about knowing who 'he' is

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