<p>If you have a name that's in the possessive form, can you still refer to it with a pronoun?</p>
<p>For example,
Joe's pen ran out of ink, so he used a pencil.</p>
<p>is the "he" okay to use? or would that be the answer you circle for an error ID?</p>
<p>
Yes, but in the case of the SAT, the answer may be no. . . .</p>
<p>There was a question on a PSAT on this,
the answer to which the Educational Testing Service (ETS) had originally (and correctly) had on the test as No error. An English teacher objected to the reference of “her” to “Toni Morrison’s,” arguing that “Toni Morrison’s” is a possessive modifier and can’t be referred to by a non-possessive pronoun (only by a similarly possessive pronoun). A similar argument is that “Toni Morrison’s” is in effect an adjective since it modifies a noun, “genius,” and hence cannot be referred to by a pronoun. The question was ultimately scrapped because ETS (incorrectly) accepted the teacher’s argument, which he supported with multiple usage guides which (contrary to what is standard) object to such usage. Notice how in my previous sentence I used “he” to refer to “teacher,” which is entirely unambiguous (you fully know what I mean) and shouldn’t even warrant concern among even the most careful readers and linguists.</p>
<p>In reality, “Toni Morrison’s” is simply a noun in the genitive (“possessive”) case–that is, it is a noun that modifies another noun, and a pronoun can refer to it, simply because pronouns refer to nouns. The original answer of the ETS (No error) was correct, and that particular usage by which “her” refers to “Toni Morrison” within “Toni Morrison’s” is entirely standard in English.</p>
<p>Here is an insightful article from the New York Times on this old PSAT question talking about the clash between “grammar and politics,” standard English and “wishful thinking”: [The</a> Bloody Crossroads of Grammar and Politics](<a href=“http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/possessives.html]The”>http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/possessives.html)</p>
<p>And here’s a quote from it:
</p>
<p>So if you see this on the SAT by some chance, I would go by the standard usage, and accept such usage to be correct, and if it happens to be deemed ungrammatical through precedent then you or someone else can argue your case from there. (Keep in mind that it could be wrong if the usage is actually ambiguous, as in Gary’s father lost his car, where we do not know whether “his car” is Gary’s car or Gary’s father’s car.)</p>
<p>In writing, do the same thing, don’t feel the need to revise your sentence if you happen to employ this usage, long as there’s no ambiguity or awkwardness.</p>