Editing a School-Magazine Sentence with Two Referents
A student editor is finalizing a short news item for the school magazine. The draft sentence reads: 'Nastavnik je pohvalio učenika jer je njegov rad bio najbolji, a zatim je rekao da će ga poslati na takmičenje.' The editor senses that readers may disagree about who did what, but cannot identify the source of the problem. In the following sentence the draft uses 'obzirom na to da je rok kratak.' The adviser asks for minimal edits, not a full rewrite, and wants a written justification for each change. The magazine goes to print tomorrow, so the student must decide which ambiguities are serious enough to fix and which can be left.
1. Identify the two referential ambiguities in the draft sentence and explain what each could mean.
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The pronoun 'njegov' can refer either to the teacher ('the teacher's work') or to the student ('the student's work'). The pronoun 'ga' can refer either to the student ('send the student to the competition') or to the work ('send the work to the competition'). The first ambiguity is the more serious one because it changes who is praised; the second is partly resolved by context but still worth fixing.
2. Rewrite the sentence so that each pronoun has one clear referent, using as few changes as possible. State what you changed.
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Minimal rewrite: 'Nastavnik je pohvalio učenika jer je učenikov rad bio najbolji, a zatim je rekao da će tog učenika poslati na takmičenje.' Changes: 'njegov' becomes 'učenikov', and 'ga' becomes 'tog učenika'. This keeps the sentence structure and the same facts, but each pronoun now has one possible referent. If the intended meaning was that the work, not the student, would be sent, the second change should be 'da će taj rad poslati na takmičenje.' The editor should check the facts before choosing.
3. Decide whether 'obzirom na to da' should be changed to 's obzirom na to da' in this school-magazine context, and justify your decision with reference to standard usage and register.
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'Obzirom na to da' is widely used, but standard-language handbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina generally prefer 's obzirom na to da.' Because the text is a school magazine, the safer editorial choice is to add 's'. This is not a meaning error, so it should not be treated as urgently as the ambiguity. The justification is register and norm, not comprehension.