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Aethelflaed's avatar

What's it called in grammar when you don't say what "it" is? (details)

Asked by Aethelflaed (13755points) August 5th, 2011

I believe there is a term for when you don’t properly identify what “it” or “that” or “they” is/are. So for example, writing “It abolished slavery” and so the reader goes “What, what abolished slavery?”. What’s the grammatical term for what I’m doing wrong in that example?

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4 Answers

Jeruba's avatar

From your description, I’d say it’s a case of a pronoun that’s lacking an antecedent. Faulty pronoun reference is the error.

the100thmonkey's avatar

The general term for “pointing” at things in language is deixis.

If the sentence were one like “it’s nice today”, that would be exophoric reference.

The example you gave, though, just seems to be faulty construction.

SavoirFaire's avatar

Vague/faulty pronoun reference.

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

Non-specific reference is usually a fault, unless it is used as a literary device.

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