Must an object always agree with its possessive pronoun?

[Joe Carillo]

Easily the most puzzling English grammar question ever raised in the Forum is this one posted almost eight years ago by new member Mioorphosed: “I was reading a teacher’s manual and saw these two confusing alternative sentences: ‘Guide the pupils in making their portraits’ or ‘Guide the pupils in making their portrait.’ Should I consider the nature of the object here, whether noncount or count noun? Please help.”

I attempted to make heads and tails of that question by restating it this way: “Should the number of the object in a sentence—whether it’s singular or plural—always agree with the number of the possessive pronoun? Specifically, in those two sentence constructions, should the object’s being singular (“portrait”) or plural (“portraits”) determine whether the possessive pronoun should take the singular or plural form, too?”

If that’s the case, I said, my answer would be a categorical “no,” for the number a possessive pronoun takes is grammatically independent of whether the noun it refers to is singular or plural. Instead, that possessive pronoun would be singular or plural based on the sense intended by the writer or speaker.

Indeed, in the two sentence constructions presented, the possessive pronoun and the noun it modifies can actually take these six variations in number and gender: “Guide the pupils in making (their, his, her) (portraits, portrait).” We also can’t be sure precisely to whom the possessive pronoun refers, for its subject could possibly be someone (or perhaps others) not even mentioned in the sentence.

Now let’s more closely examine those two problematic instructional sentences: “Guide the pupils in making their portraits.” “Guide the pupils in making their portrait.” Which of them has the correct object—the one with the plural “portraits” or that with the singular “portrait”?

As I earlier pointed out, it depends on what the speaker or writer specifically had in mind. None of the two sentences is precise enough to convey an unmistakable sense.

                 IMAGE CREDIT: SLIDEPLAYER.COM

OH MAYBE SO, BUT THAT BALL AS OBJECT NOUN COULD BE MINE, YOURS OR
OURS, TOO, DEPENDING ON WHO OWNS, POSSESSES, OR CLAIMS IT!

Let’s do some simple tweaks to make those two instructions crystal clear:

If the possessive pronoun refers to the pupils themselves, and those pupils have been tasked to individually do a portrait of someone other than themselves, then the correct form would be this: “Guide the pupils in making their portrait of (the object).” Here, the plural possessive pronoun “their” refers to the pupils themselves, and the singular object could be anything other than any of the pupils themselves.

And if the possessive pronoun is indeed meant to refer to the pupils, and if those pupils have been asked to individually do portraits of themselves, then the correct form would be this: “Guide the pupils in making portraits of themselves.” Here, both the plural possessive pronoun and the plural object refer to the pupils themselves.

However, to make it unmistakable that the portrait each pupil has to do is that of himself or herself, it’s advisable to qualify the object as follows: “Guide the pupils in making their respective portraits of themselves.” Here, the plural possessive pronoun “their” refers to the pupils themselves, and the plural object “portraits” refer to one each to be done by the pupils themselves.

It’s also conceivable that the possessive pronoun “their” refers to subjects of the portrait other than the pupils, in which case those two sentences should take either of these two forms for clarity: “Guide the pupils in making a portrait of the subject individually assigned to them” or “Guide the pupils in making portraits of the subjects individually assigned to them.”

We need to be doubly sure not only of the antecedent noun of the possessive pronoun being used but also its relation to the object referred to by that possessive pronoun. We should avoid guesswork and never leave things to chance.

(Next: Make sure your endearment doesn’t bungle its comparative)     September 10, 2020

Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. Follow me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jacarillo, and on Twitter.com @J8Carillo. E-mail:  j8carillo@yahoo.com.

Read this online in The Manila Times:
“Must an object always agree with its possessive pronoun?”