...the White Walker King, he landed...

[nuclearegg69]

Sentence: When Jon Snow fought the White Walker King, he landed a critical hit.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL): Grammar Refresher License: CC-BY-4.0

Does "he" refer to John Snow? Or is this considered ambiguous and violating pronoun reference rules?

In such case, the sentence could be as follows: (When Jon Snow fought the White Walker King, Snow landed a critical hit.)

 

[emsr2d2]

Before we continue, please tell us who wrote the main sentence. if you didn't write it yourself, please provide the source and author.

 

[nuclearegg69]

Before we continue, please tell us who wrote the main sentence. if you didn't write it yourself, please provide the source and author.

Thanks, I edited the thread message.

 

[probus]

It seems unlikely that Snow is the antecedent of "he" but we can't be certain without more context. Please provide a slightly longer excerpt. Also, is his forename Jon or John?

 

[nuclearegg69]

It seems unlikely that Snow is the sntecedent of he but we can't be certain without more context. Please provide a slightlly longer excerpt. Also, is his forename Jon or John?

Sorry, I meant if the sentence is correct regarding pronoun reference rules. I am not asking about the context, sorry if that was not clear.

 

[nuclearegg69]

It seems unlikely that Snow is the sntecedent of he but we can't be certain without more context. Please provide a slightlly longer excerpt. Also, is his forename Jon or John?

My thought process regarding this is that since Jon is the subject in the introductory phrase "When Jon Snow fought the White Walker King", then it is acceptable to refer to him with 'he' while there is another person in the intro phrase. The original source says that this sentence is in violation of pronoun rules but does not mention why or just mentions that it should be clearly stated if there are two persons. But I have seen similar sentences being written like this (i.e., using he). So I wanted to ask which is correct.

 

[probus]

I think the sentence is poorly written in that "he" could conceivably refer to either Jon Snow or to the White Walker King. But I think it's much more likely that "he" means Jon Snow, and that the way you rewrote the sentence in your first post is a big improvement removing the ambiguity.

 

[Tarheel]

Sentence: When Jon Snow fought the White Walker King, he landed a critical hit.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL): Grammar Refresher License: CC-BY-4.0

Does "he" refer to John Snow? Or is this considered ambiguous and violating pronoun reference rules?

In such case, the sentence could be as follows: (When Jon Snow fought the White Walker King, Snow landed a critical hit.)

I prefer your version. While "he" in the first version seems to refer to Jon Snow, you really can't be 100% certain.

 

[jutfrank]

Does "he" refer to John Snow?

Yes, unquestionably, though that's not to say that it could not possibly be meant in the other way.

Or is this considered ambiguous and violating pronoun reference rules?

There is no 'violation' of any rules, as far as I'm concerned. The principle that counts most here is that of subject co-reference. That is, we expect the subject of the second clause to be the same as the first, if it's possible. For that not to be the case, there would need to be clues from a wider context.