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Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Neither the senior managers nor the chief executive officer has submitted _____ formal appraisal to the board of trustees. Which of the following pronouns correctly completes the sentence?

  1. A
    their
  2. his or herAnswer
  3. C
    its
  4. D
    theirs

Answer

The singular possessive phrase 'his or her' correctly completes the sentence because the pronoun must agree with the nearer singular antecedent 'the chief executive officer'.
When antecedents are connected by correlative conjunctions like 'neither... nor', the pronoun agrees in number with the antecedent closer to it. Since 'the chief executive officer' is singular and nearest to the blank, the singular possessive form 'his or her' is required.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the conjunction structure and the antecedents
The correlative conjunction 'neither... nor' connects two subjects: 'the senior managers' (plural) and 'the chief executive officer' (singular).
Correlative conjunctions determine how agreement rules are applied.
2
Apply the rule of proximity for pronoun-antecedent agreement
The pronoun position is closest to 'the chief executive officer', which is singular.
In formal English, when subjects of different numbers are linked by 'neither... nor', the pronoun agrees with the noun phrase nearest to it.
3
Select the correct singular possessive pronoun form
Select 'his or her' to modify 'formal appraisal'.
'His or her' is the grammatically appropriate singular third-person possessive form for an individual person in formal written English.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions (Rule of Proximity)
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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