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Which one of the two following sentences is more appropriate?

  1. Each state stands for a possible configuration of the system, and it is represented in the state space by a point.

  2. Each state stands for a possible configuration of the system, and is represented in the state space by a point.

Is the pronoun 'it' necessary or redundant in the first sentence? Thanks.

Floyd
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    The first sentence is not a sentence but two sentences. So ideally you would change the comma to a period and drop the and. At which point the antedecent of it is not clear anymore. It could refer to the state, or the configuration, or the system. The second sentence is perfectly clear and can be left as is, or indeed substantially shortened further. – RegDwigнt Aug 20 '19 at 19:21
  • It is not necessary; the two sentences are synonymous. There is a syntactic difference, in that (2) is a product of a transformation (Conjunction Reduction), which optionally deletes repeated material in conjoined constituents. Since it's an optional rule, there is no difference except the shape of the sentence and the number of syllables, which may matter to the speaker. – John Lawler Aug 20 '19 at 19:37

1 Answers1

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In version one , for clarity , substitute the "it" with a repetition of "each".

The second option is perfect.

user356866
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