Tuesday, November 5, 2013

grammar - Disambiguating ambiguous pronouns

Which one would be correct, and why?




Say, I want to refer to Lily's mother and father in a single sentence. Would it be...



"Lily's mom was preoccupied in conversation with her husband." or
"Lily's mom was preoccupied in conversation with her dad."



I say this because I don't know who the "with her" would refer to in a sentence like this - does it refer to Lily, the subject of the sentence, or does it refer to Lily's mom, as she was mentioned closer to the term?

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