SAT Grammar Question: Need Help

<p>The statement is:</p>

<p>Jean Toomer was not only the author of Cane, a novel whose publication has been viewed as marking the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, but also a respected advisor among Quakers. </p>

<p>The answer is no error.</p>

<p>MY QUESTION IS:</p>

<p>The phrase "viewed as marking" seems awkward to me. "marking the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance" doesn't seem like an noun or predicate nominative. Thus, I don't think it could logically followed "viewed as" because it can not replace "publication".</p>

<p>Can someone explain this to me? </p>

<p>HELP!!!</p>

<p>I probably shouldn’t have posted this at night. HELP!!!</p>

<p>Consider this a bump.</p>

<p>omg. omg. Technically, “who” and “whose” refer to people and “which” refers to things. In addition, it has clunky wording. This is what makes me want to scream at the folks who write these questions. ARGH! See, they may have been simply testing you on who’s versus whose. Ie, whether you could detect the spelling error. They may not be aware of their own further errors. It can be over-analyzed on several levels. Go have a nice cup of tea.</p>

<p>

No it’s not a noun or a predicate nominative; it’s a subject complement, an adjectivial phrase introduced by the present participle “marking” here.</p>

<p>I’ve seen whose used to indicate inanimate objects’ possession in standard texts; I can’t comment on its grammaticality.</p>

<p>“omg. omg. Technically, “who” and “whose” refer to people and “which” refers to things. In addition, it has clunky wording. This is what makes me want to scream at the folks who write these questions. ARGH! See, they may have been simply testing you on who’s versus whose. Ie, whether you could detect the spelling error. They may not be aware of their own further errors. It can be over-analyzed on several levels. Go have a nice cup of tea.”</p>

<p>No, “whose” is grammatically acceptable when referring to inanimate objects. Get your stuff straight.</p>

<p>Plenty of usage resources acknowledge that “whose” is commonly used as a possessive of which. But, they refer to it as “idiomatic,” “historical” or “colloquial.” It’s much the same as the argument about “good” versus “well.” The question remains, what are the SAT people expecting? That’s why I call it maddening.</p>