In a sentence like: America is a rich country. Its resources are massive. If the question was: what does (its) refer to? And there were choices to choose from: A. America B. America's
Which one is the correct answer? A or B ??
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The question should be 'What does It refer to?' – Edwin Ashworth Aug 12 '19 at 20:07
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@EdwinAshworth Ha, yeah, then the answer would be easy! – Mr Lister Aug 12 '19 at 20:17
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"Its" refers to the possessions of America. – Hot Licks Aug 12 '19 at 20:32
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2No, "possessions" refers to the possessions of America. – Andrew Leach Aug 12 '19 at 21:10
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4"Its" means "America's" and refers to America. – Greg Lee Aug 12 '19 at 21:56
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2What do you mean by if the question was and there were choices to choose from? Did you make this up or was it actually a question? – Jason Bassford Aug 12 '19 at 23:16
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@AndrewLeach - "It" refers to America. "It's" is the possessive and hence refers to America's possessions. – Hot Licks Aug 13 '19 at 00:19
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@HotLicks No, it's is never possessive. You sure can see how, and perhaps also why, it is that it's its its it's confusing people with here. – tchrist Aug 13 '19 at 04:33
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@tchrist - Yeah, that was a typo -- I should have said "its". My fingers get confused by it sometimes. – Hot Licks Aug 13 '19 at 11:59
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The question is ill-formed. In << "Our son is here; he is early": What does 'he' refer to? >>, there are two equally possible answers: the antecedent of the pronoun, the noun phrase 'our son', or the referent (the man himself). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 13 '19 at 15:58
1 Answers
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Assuming the question is very particular about its, then I would say that the real answer is America's, option B. This is because it refers the America, but its refers to the resources of America.
Myroidx
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