Grammatical Guidelines, Part 4: All about It

Here’s another discussion about the ambiguity of that as a referent.



Hello Phil,

Is there a grammatical rule stating that a pronoun has to refer to the noun closest to it?

Bessie



Thanks for writing, Bessie.

Consider it a helpful guideline, not a rule. Common sense, not strict rules, comes into play when deciding to whom or what a pronoun refers. The examples below show how context drives the reference.

1. In this example, the reference is clearly the noun farther from the pronoun (book, not desk): I own the book on the desk, so I have a right to sell it.

2. In this example, the reference is clearly the noun closer to the pronoun (desk, not book): Your book should not be on my desk because it is mine.

3. In this example, both pronouns clearly refer to their antecedents: I’ll put the book on the desk because it matches its color. (Of course, “because their color matches” is preferable.)

4. In this example, the pronoun is ambiguous: The book should not be on the desk because I need to move it.

5. In this example, the pronoun is also ambiguous: I don’t like the book or the desk, so I think I’ll sell it.

Bottom line: A pronoun should refer clearly to one unmistakable noun that precedes the pronoun.

Adios,
Phil


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Grammatical Guidelines, Part 3: All about That

Never ending are those questions about the unclear use of the pronoun that. Here is one:

Greetings Phil,

In the sentence below, does that relate to order or to complaints?

We have tabulated staff complaints concerning the CEO’s order that unrestricted access be given to construction contractors in January.

Best,
George



Nice hearing from you, George.

The reader should be clear about that referring to the CEO’s order, not the staff complaints, because of the proximity of that to order. In this case, however, what difference would it make? Couldn’t staff complaints be about the order as well as the unrestricted access and still make the intended point? If you’d prefer, you can eliminate the entire problem by getting around that:

We have tabulated staff complaints concerning unrestricted access to construction contractors in January.

The best thing about the revised sentence is the word-count reduction from 19 to 13 words.

Take care,
Phil


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Grammatical Guidelines, Part 2: Making Nouns Parallel

Here’s another parallel structure issue from a client, this time with nouns:



Phil,

Is there any problem with this sentence?

The executive vice-president concluded that going to the weekly team meeting, the monthly payroll audit, and the use of PeopleSoft will help track salary issues.

Thanks,
Billy



Hi Billy,

To achieve greater clarity and fluency, edit the sentence by making parallel noun phrases:

The executive vice-president concluded that attending the weekly team meeting, auditing the payroll monthly, and using PeopleSoft will help track salary issues.

Keep writing!
Phil



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Grammatical Guidelines, Part 1: Making Verbs Parallel

I’ve been getting a lot grammar questions lately, so I’ll close the year with my responses to recent client questions. Here is the first in the series:



Hello Phil,

Which of these two sentences do you prefer?

Mr. Dennis Emory, Executive Vice-president, noted that there were 17 nursing vacancies in prenatal care because 9 of them went to field placements, 5 of them were promoted, 2 of them left for the ICU and 1 left for the Burn Unit.

or

Mr. Dennis Emory, Executive Vice-president, noted that there were 17 nursing vacancies in prenatal care because 9 went to field placements, 5 were promoted, 2 left for the ICU and 1 left for the Burn Unit.

Thanks,
Mahalia



I’m sure that Mahalia and someone else at the office were engaging in a heated battle over who had the superior style. While the second one is better because of its conciseness, it still needs more parallel form among its verbs. My response:



Dear Mahalia,

Both sentences are unclear and awkward because their verbs lack parallel structure. Here is an improvement:

Mr. Dennis Emory, Executive Vice-president, noted 17 nursing vacancies because 9 staff went to field placements, 5 received promotions, 2 transferred to the ICU, and 1 left for the Burn Unit.

Good luck!
Phil


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What Makes A Creative Person?

If you have ever wondered what makes a person creative, then Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, the psychologist, professor, prize-winning thinker, and best-selling author, may have the answer for you. You should probably begin with his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), which describes creativity, its tendencies, and manifestations, and then read his follow-up publication, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996), which draws from the lives of living creative minds such as philosopher Mortimer Adler, writer Nadine Gordimer, paleontologist and geologist Stephen Jay Gould, poet Anthony Hecht, sculptor Nina Holton, neuropsychologist Brenda Milner, pianist Oscar Peterson, biologist Jonas Salk, writer May Sarton, and pediatrician Benjamin Spock, among dozens more. [I noted a helpful tip from Flow in my October 27, 2007, entry on this blog.]

Here are some snippets from Creativity:

“Creative individuals have a great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.” (58)

“Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naïve at the same time.” (59)

“Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and a rooted sense of reality at the other.” (63)

“Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.” (72)

“The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often expose them to suffering and pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.” (73)

“Creative persons differ from one another in a variety of ways, but it one respect they are unanimous: The all love what they do.” (107)

Intrigued? Pick up a copy at your library, bookstore, or online.


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Language Is Not Static—It Changes As We Do

Often people in my writing classes ask me for “the answer.” While I am not one to shy from distinguishing a comma from a semicolon, asserting that affect and effect cannot be used interchangeably, or explaining the difference between an objective and reflexive pronoun (e.g., me or myself), I more than frequently note that so much of language usage is a matter of personal preference and changing trends.

In fact, linguists would insist that the words we use to mean whatever we want them to are arbitrary in their origin—and just as arbitrarily change meaning over time. Ferdinand de Saussure (Swiss, 1857 – 1913), one of the grandfathers of modern linguistics, in particular the study of the relationship between signs and what they signify, makes this point in his landmark book, Course in General Linguistics, when he writes:


“Absolute stability in a language is never found … It would be naïve to suppose that a word can change only up to a certain point, as if there were something in it that could preserve it.” (193 – 208)


Saussure believed that geographical, cultural, climactic, and political factors greatly influence sound changes and, with them, changes in the meaning of words. As the international language of the marketplace, English is especially susceptible to pressures from global influences. Language evolves as we do. A good way to keep track of it is to take a writing course or read a current book on language or writing every three to five years.


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The Writing Challenge: Creating the Context

In his exceptional primer on the study of signs, Semiotics: The Basics (second edition), Daniel Chandler writes:

"Beyond any conscious intention, we communicate through gesture, posture, facial expression, intonation and so on." (48)

Our "real-time" writing sensibilities, driven by e-mail and instant messaging, are all too often the culprit of our miscommunication. When writing, we need context language, or helpful-to-know language, to represent our gestures, postures, facial expressions, intonations, and the like. The context language makes our content language relevant. Examples:

Content Only: doc attchd
Content with Context: Attached is the document you’ll need for our next meeting.

Content: Here’s the quarterly sales report. Explain.
Content with Context: Here is the quarterly sales report for your analysis. Please explain the discrepancy between 4Q06 and 4Q07. Thanks.

Reading that one sentence by Daniel Chandler should remind us that writing cannot be a perfect substitute for speaking—so we need context language to bring the printed word as close as we can to the spoken one.


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