<p>Members of the vice-presidential family are permitted to choose paintings from the National Gallery of Art to display in the Victorian mansion that serves as their official residence. No error</p>
<p>So I thought "their" was ambiguous.</p>
<p>Well actually I wasn't sure if "their" was referring to the "vice-presidental family" or the "members of the vice presidential family".</p>
<p>If you were to plug it in, I think it can go both ways</p>
<p>“family” is a singular noun, like “group” or “team.”</p>
<p>I know but couldn’t ‘it’ be correct b/c it modified family, not members</p>
<p>what do you mean by ‘it’? Only ‘their’ is in the original sentence. You can’t change the sentence and then say that the changed sentence is ambiguous. You can trim the sentence: “Members of the family are permitted to choose paintings to display in the house that is their residence.” Obviously, the final"their" is not ambiguous because it cannot refer to “family”</p>
<p>NOOOOO. Sorry for being confusing.</p>
<p>So when I was reading the sentence, I wasn’t sure what ‘their’ referred to. I thought ‘their’ was suppose to refer to “family” -> singular noun, so it should be changed to ‘it’ from ‘their’</p>
<p>I think it should be okay…since “members” is the subject of the sentence, “it” would sound awkward (e.g. you wouldn’t say “the members of the committee liked to eat in its house”, rather you would say “the members of the committe liked to eat in their house”)</p>
<p>Actually, “their” referred to “members” so the original sentence perfectly fine. There is, therefore, no error with the original sentence, even if you think it would sound better or something if "their was changed to “it” and refered “family.”</p>
<p>OrchidBloom’s explanation (post 6) is correct.</p>
<p>The technical grammatical explanation goes like this:</p>
<p>The antecedent of the possessive adjective “their” is the noun (and subject) “members”. The prepositional phrase “of the vice-presidential family” functions as an adjective. It modifies the noun “members”. In fact the essential sentence is grammatically unchanged if this prepositional phrase were removed. This prepositional phrase is grammatically a unit and the phrase, or a portion of the phrase, cannot be the antecedent of “their” (or the hypothetical “it”).</p>
<p>How do you know if their refers to “members” or “paintings”. Someone please answer, this has been driving me crazy for a while. Thanks.</p>