<p>Although the precise date and place of the origin of baseball are A[hotly debated,] it is B[beyond dispute] that the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn C[play] an important role in D[its] early development. No error</p>
<p>now I see the answer obviously is C, but I have a question regarding answer choice D.</p>
<p>since the subject here is "the origin of baseball," isn't the answer choice D an ambiguous pronoun?</p>
<p>it can either relate to the origin or baseball..</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>They aren’t talking about baseball, they are talking specifically about the origin of baseball.</p>
<p>I’m not really good at writing though, so I don’t know too much about the nuances of grammar that would make it so. Hopefully someone else can explain it better :).</p>
<p>They are talking about baseball. Why would they be talking about the early development of the origin of baseball? You don’t just take the entire phrase “origin of baseball” and use that as the possessive noun. They are two nouns. “Its” can refer to “origin” or “baseball” depending on the context.</p>
<p>And how is the answer C? “Play” sounds good to me.</p>
<p>^ Play is present tense?</p>
<p>To answe your original question, “of baseball” is a prepositional phrase so it cannot refer to baseball. That leaves only origin for “it” to refer to.</p>
<p>it should be “played”</p>
<p>^oh right</p>
<p>“it” has to refer to baseball because it would otherwise have to refer to the “date of the origin” or the “place of the origin” which makes no sense because those didn’t have “early development.” Not even “origin” makes sense in context</p>
<p>so shouldn’t it be classified as an ambiguous pronoun?</p>
<p>The “origin’s” “early development” doesn’t really make sense.</p>