Can a pronoun refer back to possessive?

[jantika]

If I am not wrong, I remember reading in MGMAT SC that a pronoun should have noun listed and it cannot refer back to the possessive. I came across this question in the MGMAT CAT. I feel satisfied if 'its' is replaced by 'company's' so that there is a noun specified. Please clear my doubt. Thank you.

In their latest press release, the company's new management stated a plan for expansion of its operations into the global software market via a series of acquisitions in Asia and Latin America.
A) the company's new management stated a plan for expansion of its operations
B) the new company's management stated that they planned on expanding its operations
C) the company's new managers stated their plan to expand its operations
D) the new company managers stated their plan for its operations, expanding
E) the company's new management stated that they planned to expand its operations

[RonPurewal]

Don't worry about this "rule". It won't help you get any problem correct -- it has been dispositive in a grand total of zero official problems, ever -- and, as you can see here, it will make you get things wrong.

If you have the most current edition of our SC book, it's not in there. For good reason. It's a non-rule.

(If you still care -- which you shouldn't! -- the full deal is that GMAC once wrote that non-possessive pronouns shouldn't refer to possessives. But then they wrote the subsequent edition of the same problem without that claim.)

[jantika]

Thank you Mr. Ron. I do remember seeing a question on gmat prep an year ago in which the answer choice is wrong because the pronoun is referring to the possessive. Anyway, I got your point and I will try changing my working style. Whenever I see a possessive I quickly scan the answer choices to see if a pronoun is present that refers to the possessive and from there I work on the remaining answer choices. I, in many cases, was able to end up working on only 2 choices with this approach. It is frustrating to change your style now. Anyway I see your point. Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Thank you Mr. Ron. I do remember seeing a question on gmat prep an year ago in which the answer choice is wrong because the pronoun is referring to the possessive.

If you can cite that problem, please do. That would be a total game-changer.
So far, a grand total of zero problems have ever depended on this "rule" (which, it's worth mentioning, isn't even recognized as a rule by most authorities). So it's almost certain that you're remembering something about the problem incorrectly (and/or that the answer choices in question also contained other, much more obvious and fundamental, errors).

[RonPurewal]

It is frustrating to change your style now.

Understandable. But, if you have fundamentally misaligned priorities, then "frustrating" is irrelevant. Adapt or perish.

As an analogy, looking for possessive antecedents first -- before looking at the things SC actually focuses on -- would be a lot like examining an emergency-room patient's cortisol levels before checking whether the patient's heart is actually beating (!). ...A patient from a family in which no one has ever even had a cortisol problem.
That wouldn't be a good idea.
That may be an overly dramatic analogy, but hopefully it's clear why "it's frustrating to change your style" is a non-consideration.

[RachitS713]

Thank you Mr. Ron. I do remember seeing a question on gmat prep an year ago in which the answer choice is wrong because the pronoun is referring to the possessive.

If you can cite that problem, please do. That would be a total game-changer.
So far, a grand total of zero problems have ever depended on this "rule" (which, it's worth mentioning, isn't even recognized as a rule by most authorities). So it's almost certain that you're remembering something about the problem incorrectly (and/or that the answer choices in question also contained other, much more obvious and fundamental, errors).

Hey Ron,

I was solving a question from MGMAT question bank which states reverse.
I trust your opinion and don't wish to care about it. Just wanted to bring it to your notice.

Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.



a)Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.

b) Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of how he famously and masterfully uses irony, evident in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

c) Famed for using irony in a masterful way, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author slowly revealing a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

d) Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author's famed and masterful use of irony, evidenced in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

e) Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because he slowly revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece, demonstrating his famed and masterful use of irony.

And this is the reason cited for B to be wrong: (B) The pronoun "he" must have a person as its antecedent, yet there is no person in the sentence. Remember that "he" cannot refer to "Guy de Maupassant" here, since the name is part of a possessive phrase: "Guy de Maupassant's short stories". The author himself is not grammatically present in the sentence.