Another English Question.

[GirlySports]

I'm sure you've all heard about the Prince Phillip 'faux pas"

But in addition to delivering a gift to the Obamas, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, delivered a faux pas as well when the two couples first met. (Although that is the sort of gift he often gives to the British media.)

The queen marveled at how the president managed to stay awake from the jet lag. President Obama detailed his schedule from the morning, mentioning that he had "meetings with the Chinese, the Russians, David Cameron. And I'm proud to say I did not nod off in one of the meetings."

Prince Philip, already chortling in the background, blurted: "Can you tell the difference between them?"

The president, trying to smooth over the awkward comment from a man known to make such gaffes, offered diplomatically, "It's all a blur, of course, of course."

Now people have gone crazy saying that he insulted Chinese and Russians and all ethnics but that makes no sense to me. The 'them' he was referring to was the meetings, not the people.

Is there a technical term in English grammar that points out that
"them" = "the meetings"?

[Jayems]

Difference between the russians, chinese and Cameron or the Obamas? Not sure what's going on. Link?

[GirlySports]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...a-meeting.html

[4X4]

G20 meets and the news we get is that Prince Phillip still hasn't learned how to communicate properly and that Harper missed the photo because he took a leak.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by 4X4

G20 meets and the news we get is that Prince Phillip still hasn't learned how to communicate properly and that Harper missed the photo because he took a leak.

That's the useless media today.

But I thought the Prince communicated just fine. The joke wasn't that bad.

An English major must be around to know the correct answer.

[octothorp]

I'd say that's a vague antecedent. The tense of Philip's phrase suggest that he's referring to something in the present (can you), as though telling the difference between them is an ongoing problem; while if he was referring to events in the past, he should have said 'could you tell the difference between them'.

Edit: that said, you would generally assume that a vague antecedent would refer to the most recent appropriate noun, which, in the context of Obama's comments, would have been the meetings, not the people.

[johnnyluv]

^The could wouldn't really make a difference, since the action in the past involved the Chinese, Russians, and David Cameron. The problem is that Obama's "...one of the meetings" isn't well phrased. If he had said "any of the meetings," it would have suited the "them" more.

But as an example, take the statement "I had an order of nachos with some people today. I didn't learn any of their names, though." The question "Do you like them?" is automatically assumed to be about the people, rather than the nachos. Like octothorp said, the most recent appropriate noun.

[GirlySports]

^But why would anyone ask if there's any difference between Chinese, Russians or David Cameron? They have nothing to do with each other and are totally different.

Now if it was Chinese, Japanese and Koreans.. then it's a bad joke.

Judging by yours and Octothorp's explanation, it's about the meeting and the media sucks.

[johnnyluv]

^Yeah. Using my example again, it's like the media is asking why your opinion of nachos really matters. Just a deliberate misinterpretation.

[GirlySports]

But but but it's racist! *gag*