Exception to rule , kindly pay attention, Bob please pitch in

[namitb]

Many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, the mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries.

(A) Many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, the mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries.
(B) Chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, the mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with many hundreds of monasteries.
(C) Hundreds of monasteries, many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, are dotting the mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia.
(D) The mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries, many of which are chiseled from solid rock centuries ago.
(E) The mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries, many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago.
The Official Answer to this question is E

Hi guys , in one of the posts in TM by Bob , a rule is mentioned
that a pronoun would refer to the subject of the preceding clause , here the Official Answer is E , Which is violating the rule since them is referring to monasteries , wherein according to the rule it should refer to the mountainous regions .somebdy please explain

[namitb]

HI guys ,

I just researched a bit and here are my findings,

them is an object pronoun and hence it is referiing to the object of the
clause which is monasteries

[The Past Master]

Hi Namitb,

'them' should refer to monastries only, not to mountanious regions.

'Many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago' is a modifier - modying Monastries. This is because 'mountanious regions are not chiseled solid rocks' instead the 'Hundreds of monastries are chiseled from solid rocks'.

So the modifier should be near to the noun it modifies. Hence 'E' / 'D' can be the answer.

Since it is 'Hundreds of monasteries', 'them' should be used instead of which. So the answer is 'E'

[borntorun]

Hi guys , in one of the posts in TM by Bob , a rule is mentioned
that a pronoun would refer to the subject of the preceding clause , here the Official Answer is E , Which is violating the rule since them is referring to monasteries , wherein according to the rule it should refer to the mountainous regions .somebdy please explain[/quote]


When a subordinate clause is followed by a main clause then the subjective pronoun in main clause refers to the sub of subordinate clause ..

example (OG11 Q2 , stucture is some what like this) ..'Although villagers were primarily planters , they supplemented their living with ... ' in this 'they' refers to sub noun 'villagers' of subordinate clause but not to 'planters'

reason is the case of the pronoun .. a pronoun in sub case can refer to noun as a subject ... so there is no ambiguity here ...

coming back to the question in hand , 'them' is in obj case and can't refer to 'monasteries' a subject ..

hope this helps !!