SC - pronoun reference

[rob.reinfrank]

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)

[jnelson0612]

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". :-)