what does "it" referring to?

[joon]

(example)There have been many changes between the two nations in all those years, and now IT facesa major turning point .


I think "it" in the above example sentence is referring to "nations".
I am wandering because "nations" is in the plural form and it is a singular pronoun.

Does the pronoun "it" really refering to nations?
and
Can a singular pronoun refer to a plural noun?

[LarryLatham]

Can a singular pronoun refer to a plural noun?

In a word, Joon, no.

Here, I highly suspect, is an example of the great many cases where analysis of a single sentence does not yield satisfactory results. Nearly all sentences exist in context of others. My guess is that the sentences preceeding the one you gave in your example might be something like this:

"The government of India, in particular, in its relationship with Pakistan, is a case in point. India's new government is only just getting settled in. There have been many changes between the two nations in all those years and now it faces a major turning point."

It, here, clearly refers to government in the sentence before the one in which it appears. Sometimes pronouns refer to ideas which occur even a paragraph away.

The all too common practice, in language study, of dealing with the language only word by word, or even sentence by sentence needs to be changed if we are to get better results. There are many points to be learned which demand attention to larger units.

Hope this gives you some help, Joon.

Larry Latham[/i]

[joon]

It was very thoughtful of you, and was very carelessness of me.


Indeed, there is the word referred by the pronoun "it" in another sentence before my example sentence.

Thanks Larry.

[sg]

On first reading, "it" may be I.T.
On a second reading I agree with the other replies.
sg
singapore

[LarryLatham]

Ah, I think you may be quite right, sg.

In reading Joon's original posting after so many weeks, I realize that I assumed he had capitalized the IT himself for emphasis to point out what he was looking at. Now it also looks to me like it may have been in the original text that way, in which case it probably refers to Information Technology, as you point out.

Good sleuthing!

Larry Latham