“Each has promised his son . . . “ is an improvement, but the writing as a whole is still ambiguous and incohesive.

 

Because promise is transitive, “Each has promised his son, “ allows for more than one interpretation:

 

1)      He promised (to) his son that . . .

2)      He promised his son in exchange for something else.

 

The context of course helps clarify which is intended, but the ambiguity is distracting.

 

An additional problem created by this choice is the incohesion with the referent when the pronouns are adjusted accordingly:

 

“Each has promised his son, and he must not fail.” Now the “he” can refer to either of the respective sons or to the fathers.

 

Even if that ambiguity is ignored, the phonological loss of power caused by switching from Both . . . they to Each . . . his is also unfortunate.

 

There’s no denying our pronoun system leaves a little to be desired—mainly clarity.

 

Not that I’d want to spend my Sunday morning doing it, but rewriting the whole piece would be worth the effort if it’s meant to be published somewhere.

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dick Veit
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Grammar question

 

"Each has promised his son..." is for me the least ambiguous.

Dick

On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Scott Lavitt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Wrong pronoun. Both have promised "his" son.

--- On Fri, 7/20/12, Martha Galphin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


From: Martha Galphin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Grammar question
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, July 20, 2012, 12:53 PM

Found in a book on screenwriting:

“In that film, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad [sic] battle to achieve the same goal--the acquisition of the last popular action figure for sale that Christmas season. Both of them have promised their son, and they must not fail.”  

My question concerns the clause “both of them have promised their son . . . .”  Other than a rewriting of this sentence, is there any way to clarify the meaning? Now it reads as though Schwarzenegger and Sinbad have a son in common which is not the case. (Each has only one son; so, sons wouldn’t work.) If rewriting is the answer, what would you suggest?

 

Thank you,
Martha

 

Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:34:53 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: politics on ATEG; instance of semantic broadening
To: [log in to unmask]

The  ATEG list is dedicated to discussion of teaching grammar and other language-related issues. Its members represent a range of political viewpoints, and even serious political discussion would take us far afield, resolving nothing, and engender rancor. There are many outlets for political screeds; ATEG is not one of them. Those who abuse this list should lose their privilege to participate in it.

To change the topic back to language: it was jarring to hear a Denver newspaper reporter, interviewed on NPR this morning, describe the Colorado mass murderer as "the gentleman who did this." For the reporter and likely for some Americans as well, the word "gentleman" has broadened from its original meaning to denote simply a male person, with apparently neutral connotation.

Dick
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