I agree, it is because we recognize that these animal classes are not families. When we use a particular common noun to refer to a species, we use a definite article (partly suppressed in the listing). Perhaps this is the point of understanding that needs addressing for ESL students. The definite article is also regularly used to refer to an instance. To particularize the reference and undo this ambiguity one may use a demonstrative or give the animal a proper name, "Felix is a lynx," "That lynx is Felix, others are Sally and Bessy."
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
From: Marie-Pierre Jouannaud <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "others are" pronoun referent
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:32:13 +0100
Isn't it because we already know that wildcats, cougars, and cheetahs are
felines that we understand that "others" refers to "(members of) the
family felidae"? Otherwise, it might just as well refer to "(members of
the class of) mammals".
Marie
(not a native speaker)
> Mark,
>
> I agree that it is a bad question. It doesn't test the students'
> understanding of the sentence but rather their awareness of which meaning
> of "refer to" the questioners have in mind. I assume they want answer A,
> but I think B is perfectly reasonable as well.
>
> Take another sentence, "Of all the basketball players I have seen, my
> favorites are Jabbar, Jordan, and James." What does the word "favorites"
> refer to?
>
> Well, in one sense it could refer to the antecedent "basketball players,"
> but it would also make perfect sense to say it refers to "Jabbar, Jordan,
> and James." You could certainly imagine the student thinking, "They are
> the
> favorites, so of course it refers to them." If the question were restated
> as "*Who *does the word 'favorites' refer to?," I think most people would
> name the three players.
>
> So bad test question.
>
> Different topic: in "the family felidae," "family" is a noun (object of
> the
> preposition). "Felidae," also a noun, is a restrictive appositive. Other
> examples: "the color blue," "my sister Evelyn," "the play *Hamlet*."
>
> Compare "family felidae" (main noun + appositive) with "family tree" (noun
> modifier + main noun).
>
> Dick
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 1:04 PM, M C Johnstone <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> A sentence on this pattern came up as an proposed item for a
>> standardized
>> test recently:
>>
>> "The lynx belongs to the family felidae and is a mammal. **Others** are
>> the wildcat, cougar, and cheetah."
>>
>> It is a multiple choice item. The question stem is "What does the word
>> **
>> others** in line ## refer to?"
>>
>> Two of the choices are:
>>
>> A. felidae
>> B. wildcat, cougar, and cheetah
>>
>> I'm not sure whether felidae is singular or plural, that depends on
>> whether it is nominative or genitive case. I don't think it matters
>> since
>> the word functions as an adjective modifying "family" and so must be
>> singular in English.
>>
>> So, it is difficult to see how the plural pronoun "others" can refer to
>> a
>> singular felidae family. It seems more closely associated with
>> "wildcat,
>> cougar and cheetah" though this phrase is the complement of "are" and
>> not a
>> pronoun referent.
>>
>> According to the item writer, the word "others" refers to "felidae."
>>
>> This is part of a reading comprehension test and so raises another
>> question: how can identification of the correct pronoun referent can be
>> interpreted as evidence of comprehending a text?
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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