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SC - pronoun reference

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rob.reinfrank
 Post subject: SC - pronoun reference
 Post Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:44 pm 
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Students


Posts: 1
Hey there,

So at the top of page 84 of the MGMAT SC guide, the following sentence is shown as being correct:

Max's grandmother is his supposedly Irish ancestor.

My question is whether his can logically refer to Max's. I am under the impression that a possessive pronoun can only refer to a noun that actually exists in the sentence*. But in the above sentence, is Max's not an adjective modifying grandma, the subject of the sentence? There's no mention of Max-- only his grandma. What's going on here? Can anyone please clarify?

Many thanks!

Rob

*(I'm thinking of that example as Beethoven as a ladies man-- lol btw)
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jnelson0612
 Post subject: Re: SC - pronoun reference
 Post Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:45 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 1857
rob.reinfrank wrote:
Hey there,

So at the top of page 84 of the MGMAT SC guide, the following sentence is shown as being correct:

Max's grandmother is his supposedly Irish ancestor.

My question is whether his can logically refer to Max's. I am under the impression that a possessive pronoun can only refer to a noun that actually exists in the sentence*. But in the above sentence, is Max's not an adjective modifying grandma, the subject of the sentence? There's no mention of Max-- only his grandma. What's going on here? Can anyone please clarify?

Many thanks!

Rob

*(I'm thinking of that example as Beethoven as a ladies man-- lol btw)


Great question! A possessive pronoun can indeed refer to a possessive noun; in this case, "his" is referring to "Max's". :-)

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor
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