Possessive as antecedent

[HemantR606]

Hi Ron,

The sentence below is the modified version of a question I have encountered in GMAT exam pack.

"Although children's IQ levels are improving, Department of cognitive mathematics show that the ratio of their......"

This phrase is non underlined part of the question. I have 2 doubts in it

1. How can 'show' refer to 'Department'? ('Department of Labor statistics' is the exact set of words used in the original question)

2. How can 'their' refer to 'children's', which is a possessive?
I have encountered a similar pronoun use (pronoun referring to a possessive) in an OG question as well. Unfortunately I don't remember the question number and also I have failed to find the question. And in some other OG question I have seen an explanation saying that a pronoun cannot refer to a possessive word because a possessive acts as an adjective. Unfortunately, I do not remember the question number again.


Please help me understand these issues.

Thank you very much in advance

[RonPurewal]

1. How can 'show' refer to 'Department'? ('Department of Labor statistics' is the exact set of words used in the original question)

as always, you need to use common sense to understand the sentences.

in this context, it should be clear that STATISTICS 'show' something.
you're currently trying to read the sentence as 'a government agency shows that xxxx is true'. that is not something that makes sense.

'DOL statistics' is like 'U.S. statistics', or 'California highways', or whatever. here 'DOL' is an adjective and 'statistics' is a noun. we're talking about statistics provided by the DOL.

[RonPurewal]

also, if there were such a thing as the 'Department of Labor Statistics' then the blue capital 'S' would have to be there.
so, on top of the common-sense angle, that's another clue toward a correct interpretation.

[RonPurewal]

2. How can 'their' refer to 'children's', which is a possessive?

the BEST response to this is:
DO NOT THINK about 'possessive antecedents'.
• the potential for confusion is VERY HIGH. (in fact, that confusion is happening right here, right now, in this thread.)
• there is ZERO BENEFIT, because NO official problem will EVER depend on this.


if you insist then you can read this...
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p46683
...but be forewarned. thinking about this issue is MUCH more likely to work against you than to work in your favor.