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vivekgautam1
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Possessice pronouns - 08 Aug 2015, 05:11
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Can anyone please explain how the below pronoun constructions differ.

1) Jane’s first novel was so well received that she thought of writing its sequel. INCORRECT

- Jane’s first novel was so well received that JANE thought of writing its sequel. CORRECT

2) Jane’s first novel was so well received that her bank balance soared. CORRECT

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Possessice pronouns - 12 Aug 2015, 11:03
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Actually all the three sentences in your post are absolutely correct.
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Possessice pronouns - 26 Aug 2015, 12:44
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I don't think the first one is correct. Because the pronoun has to be possessive. The last one has her...so that makes it right. Here is an OG question.

Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.
This is correct.

Here is a discussion on it.

gmat-tuesdays-sc-antecedents-possessives-and-pronouns-167929.html

Scroll down to Kevin's comments.
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Possessice pronouns - 26 Aug 2015, 20:19
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nphatak
I don't think the first one is correct. Because the pronoun has to be possessive.
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Hi nphatakm, GMAT is pretty lenient on this front. Here is an example where a subject pronoun is referring to a possessive noun:

Although Elizabeth Barrett browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

nphatak
The last one has her...so that makes it right. Here is an OG question.

Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.
This is correct.
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Hi nphatakm, this OG question is not the right example to illustrate this point. In this sentence, her is not really used as a possessive pronoun, but as an object pronoun. In fact, this OG question further confirms that GMAT is pretty lenient on this front, because in this sentence, the object pronoun her is referring to the possessive noun.

So, basically we have two sentences above. In the first case, subject pronoun is referring to a possessive noun, while in the second case, the object pronoun her is referring to the possessive noun.
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Possessice pronouns - 08 Jan 2017, 07:47
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Can you please explain which of the below given sentences are incorrect and why they are wrong. What is the reasoning used.

Jane???s first novel was so well received that she thought of writing its sequel.

Jane???s first novel was so well received that her bank balance soared.

Jane???s first novel was so well received that the publisher thought of giving her an additional royalty of 10%, lending credence to the fact that her subsequent writings could be even more passionate.

Jane???s first novel was so well received that her skeptical husband also started appreciating her writing style.
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Possessice pronouns - 29 Jan 2017, 17:03
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The "possessive poison" rule no longer seems to be something the GMAT enforces. I'm glad, as it can be a rather silly rule when enforced mindlessly.

The idea is that sentence 1 in the original post by vivekgautam1 and sentences 1 and 3 in the new post by psumit06 would be wrong because they use a non-possessive pronoun ("she" as a subject or "her" as an object) to refer to a possessive pronoun. Some see this as a violation, but as the various sentences in psumit06's post show, this can seem rather arbitrary. Are sentences 3 really any less clear than the others in terms of whom the pronoun refers to?

There are cases in which I might enforce the rule, but those would always come down to ambiguity. If I say "Dave's boss designed a spreadsheet that helped him in the presentation" or "Sarah thought that Jane's novel made her look foolish," you really might not know whether "him" is Dave or his boss, and whether "her" is Sarah or Jane. Someone who goes by the possessive poison rule would say that those pronouns must refer to the boss and Sarah. However, in an SC context, we'd just look for an answer that clearly conveyed one of those intended meanings. It's also likely that there would be additional content that would help to make the intended meaning clear.

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Possessice pronouns - 14 Oct 2021, 10:25
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