GRM-005 Hard constraint layer: sentence

Unambiguous pronoun reference

IF a pronoun has two or more plausible antecedents OR none, THEN replace it with the intended noun phrase ELSE retain.

Why the rule exists

Readers should not need to guess who or what a pronoun denotes.

Condition

The rule fires when this evaluates true. Paths marked below must be present in the fact base; the engine reports the rest rather than guessing them.

ANY
- pronoun.plausible_antecedent_count gt 1
- pronoun.plausible_antecedent_count eq 0

Facts this rule reads

Fact paths read by GRM-005 and whether the analyser derives them
Path	Source
`pronoun.plausible_antecedent_count`	You supply it

Then

replace — target pronoun, value from intended_referent.short_noun_phrase

Else

retain — target current_text, No triggering condition is present.

Test cases

TST-002 · [object Object]

Before: Maya told Priya that she had won.
After: Maya told Priya, “You won.”
Reason: The intended referent is made explicit; another intended meaning would require a different repair.

LAKA

Smallest sufficient intervention

Yes

Primary axes

Sources

The Copyeditor's Handbook — Amy Einsohn; Marilyn Schwartz
Professional copyediting practice, grammar, and editorial process.
The Sense of Style — Steven Pinker
Reader-centered clarity informed by linguistics and cognition.
On Writing Well — William Zinsser
Clarity, simplicity, voice, and nonfiction craft.

The raw rule record

Verbatim from 07-core-grammar-rules.json. Also available at /v1/rules/GRM-005.

{
  "id": "GRM-005",
  "name": "Unambiguous pronoun reference",
  "domain": "grammar",
  "layer": "sentence",
  "strength": "hard_constraint",
  "human_logic": "IF a pronoun has two or more plausible antecedents OR none, THEN replace it with the intended noun phrase ELSE retain.",
  "when": {
    "any": [
      {
        "path": "pronoun.plausible_antecedent_count",
        "operator": "gt",
        "value": 1
      },
      {
        "path": "pronoun.plausible_antecedent_count",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": 0
      }
    ]
  },
  "then": [
    {
      "action": "replace",
      "target": "pronoun",
      "value_from": "intended_referent.short_noun_phrase"
    }
  ],
  "else": [
    {
      "action": "retain",
      "target": "current_text",
      "reason": "No triggering condition is present."
    }
  ],
  "unless": [],
  "because": "Readers should not need to guess who or what a pronoun denotes.",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "examples": {},
  "source_ids": [
    "BK-007",
    "BK-008",
    "BK-013"
  ],
  "laka": {
    "smallest_sufficient_intervention": true,
    "primary_axes": [
      "scope",
      "depth",
      "magnitude",
      "reversibility"
    ]
  }
}