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Question

Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Which of the following pronouns correctly completes the sentence below?

"Neither the senior curator nor the museum archivists have submitted _______ cataloging reports for the upcoming exhibition."

  1. theirAnswer
  2. B
    his or her
  3. C
    its
  4. D
    his

Answer

The pronoun 'their' correctly completes the sentence to maintain proper grammatical agreement.
In formal standard English, when two antecedents are joined by correlative conjunctions such as 'neither... nor...', the pronoun agrees with the antecedent closest to it. Since 'museum archivists' is plural and directly precedes the pronoun blank, the plural possessive pronoun 'their' is required.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the compound antecedent and the connecting conjunctions.
The subject consists of two elements: 'the senior curator' (singular) and 'the museum archivists' (plural), linked by 'neither... nor...'.
Analyzing the antecedent structure is required to determine which agreement rule applies.
2
Apply the rule of proximity governing correlative conjunctions.
When antecedents are connected by 'neither... nor...', the pronoun must agree with the antecedent nearer to the blank ('museum archivists').
Formal English grammar specifies proximity-based agreement in disjunctive compound structures.
3
Select the pronoun matching the plural nearer antecedent.
'their' is the third-person plural possessive pronoun required.
'their' properly aligns with the plural noun 'archivists'.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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