Can modifiers modify pronouns?

[Guest]

Throughout the mgmat course and in the book, I learned that modifiers or a modifying phrase should describe someone or something in a sentence. Can they modify pronouns?

For example:

Having forfeited her severance package in order to keep the rights to her intellectual property, it was believed by the employee that she had won a moral victory.

A) it was believed by the employee that she had won a moral victory
B) she believed that she had won a moral victory.
C) the employee believed that she had won a moral victory
D) the employee believed her moral victory to have been won
E) the employee believed that the moral victory was won

I narrowed the answers down to B and C. However is B wrong for trying to modify a pronoun?

[RonPurewal]

Well, no, modifiers can modify pronouns. For instance:
Coming home from school, the wind blew me off my bike. --> incorrect; modifier modifies a noun
Coming home from school, I was blown off my bike by the wind. --> correct; modifier modifies a pronoun ("I")
Pronouns are very much like nouns (in terms of what they're allowed to do by proper grammar); this is no exception.

The problem with choice B has nothing to do with "she". The problem is that, if you insert choice B into the sentence, you now have NO IDEA who "she" is (the word "employee" doesn't appear in the sentence anymore).

The problem is that you see the word 'employee' so many times - in the problem and in all the other answer choices - that you've failed to notice that inserting choice B kills it entirely, leaving the pronoun without an antecedent. Remember not only to check the grammar of whatever choice you choose, but also to INSERT the choice into the sentence and make sure the sentence still makes sense overall.

[rte.sushil]

Independent contractors pay higher taxes, are paid less consistently than statutory employees, and, unlike statutory employees, they may freely perform the same type of work for multiple businesses.
A. taxes, are paid less consistently than statutory employees, and, unlike statutory employees, they may freely
B.taxes and are paid less consistently than statutory employees; unlike statutory employees, though, independent contractors are free to
C.taxes and paid less consistently than are statutory employees, but they, unlike statutory employees, are freely allowed to
D.taxes and are paid less consistently than are statutory employees; in addition, unlike statutory employees, independent contractors can freely
E.taxes and paid less consistently than are statutory employees; moreover, unlike statutory employees, they are allowed to


I chosed the right answer B in the above question from manhattan test series but i have some queries on the explanation given.

Ques1:For the Option C, explanation is " Finally, the modifier unlike statutory employees is used to modify a pronoun (they) rather than a noun, resulting in an awkward and unacceptable construction."
So as per the discussion above, firstly, you have mentioned that it is not necessary that modifiers cannot come with pronouns. Secondly, they is clearly referring to Independent contractors because " unlike statutory employees" is immediately following "they".
Your coments on this?

Ques2: In the explanation for the option C "And links the constructions pay... and paid... These constructions are not parallel: the first is a verb phrase, but the second is a participial modifier.".
i eliminated C because wages are being paid to independent contractors not paid by them. Similarly as in example "sales were increased" is wrong but "sales increased" is correct.
But in the explanation i could not understand when it is said that it is a participial modifier. according to me, participial modifiers acts as adjective e.g. present participle: sleeping cats or past participial : Increased sales. so as per my understanding it is a modifier which is trying to modify independent contractors and lacks parallellism. so it should be eliminated.
In summary, why they said as participal modifier rather than saying modifies nouns which is not required here.

[tim]

Don't worry about the part where it talks about modifying pronouns; what Ron said earlier is correct. The real reason C is wrong is because of the lack of parallelism between "pay" which is a verb and "paid" which is a modifier. You don't have to worry about more specific terms than these. Does this help?

[rte.sushil]

ok, i agree.
but i want to clarify on the following point:-

C.taxes and paid less consistently than are statutory employees, but they, unlike statutory employees, are freely allowed to

Here, they refers definitely to "Independent contractors" , right? Because "but they, unlike statutory employee" so they cannot refer to "statutory employee". Is my interpreation correct?

Thanks!!

[tim]

that sounds correct..