MEETING XIII

(Reading)

PRONOUN REFERENTS AND IMPLIED QUESTIONS

A. OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, the students are able to:

1. Determine pronoun Referents
2. Identify Implied Questions.

B. MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

1. Pronoun Referents

a. Introduction to Pronoun Referents

This part of the module describes the
understanding of pronouns, types or pronouns, and
examples of pronouns referents within sentences.
According to Langen (2003, p. 197) pronouns
are words which take place of nouns. It can be stated
that pronouns refer to and replace nouns which have
already mentioned or which the writers assume are
understood by the readers. There are some basic rules

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 in understanding pronoun referents. Look at the
following examples:
1) Ms. X is in library. She is reading some books.
2) Mr. Z is my lecturer. He is a nice person.
From the examples above, it can be seen that
there are two different pronouns used in those two
sentences, they are she and he. Pronoun she in the
first examples replaces Ms. X as the noun, while
pronoun he in the second sentence replaces the noun
Mr. Z. Therefore it is clearly shown that a pronoun
must agree in person with its antecedent (the word or
phrase replaced by the pronoun).
Further, a pronoun must agree in number with its
antecedent. Singular pronouns refer to singular nouns,
while plural pronouns to plural nouns. Singular means
one, and plural means more than one. Pay attention to
the examples below:
1) I have a new book. It is a novel.
2) The kids are in the playground. They are playing
hide and seek.

The examples above show that pronoun it in the

first sentence replaces book as it is a singular noun,
while pronoun they in the second sentence replaces
kids as it is a plural noun.
Moreover, the next basic rule is there should be
only one possible antecedent for a singular pronoun.

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 Only the noun that the pronoun refers to should come
before the pronoun. For example:
1) Anne and Rebecca walked to her class this
morning (incorrect)
2) Anne and Rebecca walked to Anne’s class this
morning (correct)
3) Anne walked to her class, and Rebecca
accompanied her this morning (correct)
From above examples, it can be seen that the
first sentences is incorrect because the pronoun her is
not clear to which it refers to. Yet, the examples c and
d are correct as the noun and the pronoun refers to are
clear.
In addition, there must be an explicit antecedent.
Sometimes, readers are confused of what the
antecedent is. Look at the following examples:
1) In campus, they said that Unpam is huge
(incorrect).
2) In campus, there are a lot of students. They said
that Unpam is huge (correct).
Example a is incorrect as there is no clear
antecedent for the pronoun they. While the example b
is correct since the pronoun they clearly refers to the
students as its antecedent.
A pronoun should not refer to a possessive noun.
When a noun is possessive, it functions as an
adjective, so it cannot be replaced by a pronoun.

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 1) In the lecturer’s statement, he was very helpful
(incorrect).
2) The lecturer was very helpful in his statement
(correct).
3) The lecturer’s statement was very helpful
(correct).

From the examples above, a is incorrect because the

pronoun he cannot replace any words. The examples
b and c are correct as the noun and pronoun refers to
are clear.
The last rule is that pronoun it must be used
consistently. If it is used to refer to one noun in a
sentence, it cannot be used again to refer to another
noun in the same sentence or as an idiom. Look at the
examples below:
1) If it is possible, I want to go on vacation since it
will make me glad (incorrect).
2) If it is possible, I want to on vacation, which will
help me glad (correct).

In conclusion, paying attention to the rules can be very

helpful to understand the use of those pronoun
referents in sentences correctly.

b. Types of Pronouns.
In order to make correct sentences using
pronouns correctly, it is essential to know and

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 understand some types of pronouns as they are used
differently. According to Azar (2002), there are 5 types
of pronouns which are commonly used in both written
and spoken languages, they are Subject pronouns,
Object pronouns, Possessive pronouns, Possessive
Adjectives, and Reflexive pronouns. To get better
understanding, look at the following table:

Table 1.Types of pronouns

Subject Object Possessive Posses Reflexive
Pronouns Pronoun Adjectives sive Pronoun
s pronou s
ns
Me My Mine Myself
I
You Your Yours Yourself/
You
yourselv
es

Us Our Ours Ourselve

We
s

Them Their Theirs Themsel

They
ves

Her Her Hers Herself

She
Him His His Himself
He
it its - itself
it

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 Subject pronouns are those who perform the
actions in the sentences, while object pronouns are
those that receive the actions in the sentences. Look
at the sentences below:
1) That man is a chef. He is cooking some food.
2) The students are in the class. Ms. Anna is talking
to them.
From above examples, it is seen that pronoun he
in the first sentence performs the action of cooking, so
it is a subject pronoun. While pronoun them in the
second sentence performs as an object pronoun as it
receives the action did by Ms. Anna as the subject.
Further, both possessive adjectives and
possessive pronouns are used to show possession or
ownership. Possessive adjective must be followed by
a noun, while possessive pronoun is used alone,
without a noun following it. Pay attention to the
following examples:
1) Susi and Dinda are the students of Unpam. Their
class is on the fifth floor.
2) This is my book. The blue one is yours.
The possessive adjective their in the first sentence is
used to inform the students’ class, and it is followed by
the noun class. While the possessive pronoun yours
in the second example explains the book that belongs
to the other subject, and it is used alone without a noun
following it.

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 The other type of pronoun is reflexive pronouns.
They are used when both subject and object are the
same thing, and the action is pointed back to the
subject of the sentence. Look at the examples in the
following:
1) I cut myself while I was chopping the onions.
2) They saw the accident by themselves.
From the above examples, it can be seen that
the reflexive pronoun myself refers to the subject I in
a. While the reflexive pronoun themselves in b refers
to the subject they.
To conclude, pronoun has its own function and
usage. Understanding those who perform the actions
and checking the pronoun referents for agreement will
be helpful to decide what pronouns to choose and use.

c. Pronoun Referents in a Passage

In reading, especially in TOEFL reading

comprehension questions, there are some questions
asking about where the pronouns refer to. In this
session, it is essential to understand that a noun is
frequently used first in the text, while the pronoun which
refers to it comes after. The easy way to determine
pronoun referents in a text is by reading the sentence
before the pronoun occurred to find the noun without
reading the entire text. Therefore, in this type of
question, readers just need to study the context of the
surrounding words and ignore the rest. The following is

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 an example of pronoun referents question in TOEFL
test.

Another example taken form the reading

comprehension question in TOEFL test.

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 The above question asked about the referent for
the pronoun it. In order to answer this kind of question,
the same as the previous example, it is highly
suggested to look before the pronoun it for the singular
noun that the pronoun could refer to and to understand
the context of the surrounding words. Therefore, the
most possible answer is (C) the harvest moon because
from the context it is shown that the pronoun it
describes the harvest moon in the previous sentence.
The writer gives more information that the harvest
moon is the bright moon that allows farmers to work
late as written in the next sentence.

2. Indirectly Answered Questions

This section describes about making inference

and answering implied detailed question in a text.
a. Introduction to Inferences
Some writers do not express their feelings and
ideas directly in a text they made, and they let readers
draw their own conclusion. Inference making is
assumed as one of the aspects which should be
considered in reading as it is a main element to be
eloquent in reading (Davoudi, 2005). In the process of
making inference, readers are required to make use of
their prior knowledge (knowledge of a subject and
cultural knowledge) and connect it with the text

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 provided. The following is an example of making use
of knowledge of a subject:
Another example is using cultural knowledge to
link with the ideas in the passage. Look at the
following:

Inference in reading is the ability to understand

the passage without all the information being spelled
out. Readers understand the meaning of the text just
by looking at the context clues like plot, characters,
setting, and other elements that can be used to make
inference. Look at the following example:

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 In conclusion, while making inference, readers
link what they know with what is included in the text.
Inference is just an assumption supported by the
logical clues. So that, readers just need to find and
determine the plausible answers based on the
information gathered.

b. Implied Detailed Questions

Another type of question in TOEFL reading
comprehension questions is implied detail questions.
These kinds of questions ask readers to be able to draw
conclusion based on the details and clues provided in
the text. These questions contain the words inferred
implied, likely, or probably to inform the readers that the
answers are not directly stated. Therefore, it is essential
to understand the meaning of the text just by looking at
the details, and later readers will be able to draw
conclusion. Look at the following example:

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 To conclude, steps that should be done to answer
implied questions are choosing the key word, scanning
for a key word or the related idea, reading sentences
containing key words, and looking for an answer that
could be accurate based on the sentence provided.

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C. EXERCISES

Exercise 1: Choose the correct pronouns in the following

sentences.

1. The lecturer gave (their/them) some assignment to finish

2. (Yourself/You) are invited to Ann’s birthday party.
3. (I/me) always believe in (myself/I).
4. Don’t treat (mine/me) like the way you treat (his/him)
5. Will (hers/she) go out with (hers/her) classmates
tomorrow?
6. Andi did the project (him/himself) since no one could.
7. I sat next to (he/him) on the train yesterday.
8. They say that (my/mine) apartment is larger that
(theirs/their).
9. I met (you/yours) daughters. (Them/They) are very cute
and polite.
10. Unpam building is tall. (It/Its) roof is brand new. I like
(them/it)

Exercise 2: Chose and mark one out of two possible

inferences based on the information given!

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 Exercise 3: Study each passage and choose the best
answer to the question that follows.

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 Question 1-2

1. The pronoun “it” in line 2 refers to

(A) Mardi Gras
(B) French
(C) That time
(D) New Orleans

2. The pronoun “they” in line 8 refers to

(A) New Orleans
(B) Celebration
(C) Various countries
(D) Tourists

Question 3-4

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 Question 5

Questions 6-7

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 Questions 8-10

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D. REFERENCES

Azar, B. S. 2002. Understanding and Using English Grammar.

New York: Pearson Education
Davoudi, M. (2005). Inference Generation Skill and Text
Comprehension. The Reading Matrix,5(1), 106,108
Delahunty, G. P., & Garvey, J. P. 2010. The English
Language: From Sound to Sense. Colorado: The WAC
Clearinghouse.
Langen, John. 2003. English Sentence Structure. Boston:
McGraw Hill.
Phillips, D. 2001. Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL
Test. New York: Pearson Education.

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