What should this 'unexpected' refer to?

Question

Harding was unable to _____the results of the survey; although entirely unexpected, the figures were obtained by a market research firm with an impeccable reputation.

It is from the SAT exam. When I first read it I thought that unexpected refers to the research firm with an impeccable reputation: it was unexpected that the firm would turn out to have impeccable reputation.

But the book says that unexpected refers to the figures, the figures were unexpected.

Am I a tad right?

I agree with the book. It was Harding who found the figures unexpected. — Damkerng T., May 14 '14 at 13:25
@DamkerngT. Even without Harding being mentioned, I would expect unexpected to refer to the subject of the following clause. — oerkelens, May 14 '14 at 13:31

oerkelens · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-14T13:50:09.217

It definitely refers to the figures, as that is the subject of the clause that follows "although entirely unexpected".

It can semantically not refer to the firm, as that would mean the firm was unexpected, which seems to make less than a little sense.

If you want to convey that the firms good reputation was unexpected, it would be much clearer if the sentence would have been differently formulated, for instance:

notwithstanding the figures being incredible, they were obtained by a market research firm with an unexpected impeccable reputation.

You could use unexpectedly as well. Unexpected modifies reputation, unexpectedly modifies impeccable.

Reading the sentence again and again, and trying to formulate a simpler one, I agree it could refer to the reputation, although I fail to see what mechanism causes that.

Although entirely unexpected, the creatures came from a red planet.

In this case there seems to be an obvious implication that we might have expected creatures from a blue planet, but not from a red one.

In that interpretation, though, it is the fact that the figures came from such a firm that is unexpected - not the fact that this particular firm has such a reputation.

So instead of saying:

It was unexpected that the firm would turn out to have impeccable reputation.

I would say

It was unexpected that such a reputed firm would produce these figures.

Unexpected could definitely refer to the reputation of the firm (impeccable) being counter-expectant. — jimsug, May 14 '14 at 13:32
I don't understand how or why, but I agree :) See my edit / addition :) — oerkelens, May 14 '14 at 13:44
Yeah, it's a bit of a strange reading, admittedly - it's probably happening at the adjective level - "entirely unexpected" is modifying "impeccable reputation". Since the commas flag a constituent movement of some kind here, I'd say that you could rephrase as "The figures were obtained by a market research firm with an entirely unexpected impeccable reputation." — jimsug, May 14 '14 at 13:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '14 at 13:31

Well, there's three readings of this.
Harding was unable to believe the results of the survey; although entirely unexpected, the figures were obtained by a market research firm with an impeccable reputation:

...and Harding thought it must have been an incompetent market research firm.
...and Harding was expecting different results (or figures).
...and Harding was not expecting them to produce any results at all.

The last one is a bit unusual, and I would say that the second one is the unmarked reading of it.

What should this 'unexpected' refer to?

2 Answers2