Monday, March 10, 2014

Abby

Have you ever had one of those moments where Microsoft Word thinks it's more intelligent than you? For example, when I'm working on my latest project, it tells me that I have an extra pronoun in the following sentence;
"Gael quickly made herself comfortable, settling directly across from Andrew."

Apparently the program thinks the word "herself" is unnecessary. But if we edit that out-

"Gael quickly made comfortable, settling directly across from Andrew."

we have something which is clearly not an intended sentence. But, the computer insists, claiming that "herself" refers to a third, unnamed person. That makes a little sense. Let's say 'herself' IS another person, and that this other person is named Abby. Now we put Abby in her place and see what we get;

"Gael quickly made Abby comfortable, settling directly across from Andrew."

OK, that solves our 'herself is someone' problem, but is the settling part of making Abby comfortable? Gael is 'settling' something or someone, she's taking an action. This action has something to do with Abby, our pronoun-turned-person. And if so, what business is it of Abby's where Gael sits?
There are just too many unanswered questions.