Examkin

Question

Difficulty: Very hardPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Either the head archivist or the research assistants have left his or her logs in the climate-controlled preservation room.

Which of the following options is the best replacement for the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. theirAnswer
  3. C
    its
  4. D
    they're

Answer

The correct option is the plural possessive pronoun 'their', which matches the closer plural antecedent 'research assistants'.
The correct answer is the plural possessive pronoun 'their'. In a sentence with a compound subject joined by 'or' or 'nor' (such as 'Either the head archivist or the research assistants'), any pronoun referring back to this compound subject must agree in number with the closer of the two subjects. Because 'research assistants' is plural and is closest to the pronoun, the pronoun must be plural. The plural possessive pronoun 'their' correctly agrees with 'research assistants' and properly modifies 'logs'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the compound subject of the sentence.
The compound subject is 'Either the head archivist or the research assistants'. It is joined by the coordinating conjunction 'or'.
Determining the structure of the subject is necessary to apply the correct agreement rules.
2
Apply the proximity rule for compound subjects joined by 'or' or 'nor'.
When a compound subject is joined by 'or' or 'nor', the verb and any subsequent pronouns must agree in number with the closer noun or pronoun in the construction.
This is the standard grammatical rule governing compound subjects joined by disjunctive conjunctions.
3
Determine the number of the closer antecedent.
The closer antecedent to the underlined pronoun is 'research assistants', which is plural.
We need to find the number of this noun to select the agreeing pronoun form.
4
Select the correct plural possessive pronoun.
The plural possessive pronoun is 'their', which correctly modifies the noun 'logs' and agrees with the plural antecedent 'research assistants'.
This pronoun satisfies both number agreement and possessive case requirements.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Compound Subjects
Rate this question

Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

More questions from this topic