College Composition / Unit 5 CMP 0104 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Ambiguous Reference
Captions available
The idea
Reference is ambiguous when a pronoun could point to two different antecedents.
In practice
"When Lizzie hit her arm on the window, she broke it": the arm or the window? "Lizzie broke the window when she hit her arm on it" settles the question.
Where people slip
The writer always knows the meaning; read as a stranger to catch the second possible reading.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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