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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Pronoun help
I have a question for the forum, its about the use of names, pronouns and the flow. Hopefully it's OK to show two short examples. (1) I don't think anyone would write this, its very clunkly:
Smith picked up the bat and using all Smith’s strength, bashed Jones on the side of Jones’ head, sending Jones flying backwards.
To me, I might this:
Smith picked up the bat and using all his strength, bashed Jones on the side of his head, sending him flying.
My question is - what are the rules here. I mean the first "his" to refer to Smith, the second "his" to refer to Jones and the "him" at the end to also refer to Jones. Maybe that is clear to all that reads this, but is that because I have instinctively followed a syntax? Is there a set of rules that you can explain to me why this is correct (or not).
Thanks for any help
Smith picked up the bat and using all Smith’s strength, bashed Jones on the side of Jones’ head, sending Jones flying backwards.
To me, I might this:
Smith picked up the bat and using all his strength, bashed Jones on the side of his head, sending him flying.
My question is - what are the rules here. I mean the first "his" to refer to Smith, the second "his" to refer to Jones and the "him" at the end to also refer to Jones. Maybe that is clear to all that reads this, but is that because I have instinctively followed a syntax? Is there a set of rules that you can explain to me why this is correct (or not).
Thanks for any help
Top answer
Anonymous what are the rules here. e, the first 'he' does not refer to 'bat').
- Anonymous what are the rules here.
- e, the first 'he' does not refer to 'bat').
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1 Answers
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Anonymouswhat are the rules here.The pronoun refers to the nearest preceding reasonable noun (i.e, the first 'he' does not refer to 'bat').
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