Md. Teacher Finds Botched PSAT Question

WBALTV ^ | May 14, 2003 | WBAL

[daylate-dollarshort]

". . . pronouns should only refer to nouns and in this case Morrison's name is used as an adjective."

Wrong. The usage is incorrect.

First there is no "continuing subject in the essay". The question is directed to only the presented sentence. It is a rather simple question regarding grammer. 'Genius'is the noun and "Toni Morrison's" is clearly and adjective describing the noun. It is Toni Morrison's genius.

Sentence structure does not rely upon a "continuing subject" of an essay. Each sentence must stand on its own- either gramatically correct or not.

[jocon307]

"This guy is an idiot. What he's suggesting is that the pronoun should refer to 'genius'..."

Yes, thank you, I agree. Of course, I still hope my kid's score will go up, she took the PSAT during this round, but as I'm reading this article I'm trying to re-write the sentence, and not having much success. Saw some of the suggestions here, but those were entirely different constructions. "Toni Morrison's genius" is a possessive, not an adjective.

Thank you for making me feel less stupid and more sane!

[ZinGirl]

my exact thoughts....

[RightWhale]

Genius enables Toni Morrison

Enable is so common, such a basic-800-words kind of verb that it begs, beseeches for replacement. How about "genius badgers Toni Morrison day and night until she finally falls from exhaustion after extracting the essence of the Afro-Amer whatever and distilling it into the finest, purest, most refreshing oasis spring water a thirsty desert traveller can imagine." Like that, u no?

[daylate-dollarshort]

Totally incorrect.

[RightWhale]

it's

Curses be upon MS Word auto-complete. :)

[workerbee]

With one sentence, the communists over at the Educational Testing Service of Princeton N.J., can reinforce both white guilt and black resentment in young impressionable minds.

LOL! Hey, they don't call 'em edumakaters fer nuthin!

[Bullish]

The correct answer is Tony Morrison is NOT a genius.

She is a racist, moronic, leftist twit.

[SAJ]

On the money, m'friend!

[ZinGirl]

The correct answer is Tony Morrison is NOT a genius. She is a racist, moronic, leftist twit.

yeah, but if a student put THAT down, no matter how true, they probably wouldn't have earned the extra point.

[SAJ]

Nitpicky, yes. Substitution, no.

Personal pronouns are commonly used as nouns, for instance, 'I love her.'

One presumes, and rightly, that the woman in question is NOT an adjective. :^)

[IronJack]

I'm not sure I accept this. Technically, "Toni Morrison's genius" could be translated to "the genius of Toni Morrison." In the latter case, Ms. Morrison's name is the object of a preposition -- i.e., a noun. True, the prepositional (actually a genitive) phrase is used as an adjective, but the name itself is still a proper nominative.

In the test question, "Toni Morrison's" is used as an adjective modifying "genius," but remains a genitive (possessive) noun.

In the sentence "My dog has fleas," is "My" an adjective or a possessive pronoun?

[RightWhale]

Each sentence must stand on its own- either gramatically correct or not.

Hyphens were dropped from the language years ago--waste of printer's ink. The old double-em is still around if your word processor can be fooled.

[Drango]

Drango's hairy navel genius has enabled him to post on this thread.

alternative version...

Due to a massive (or is it massively) hairy navel and an sub-human IQ, Dragno has figured out how to turn on his computer and post to the internet. (turn on? Is this the same as amorous?

[ZinGirl]

You ain't (gotta love the grammar!) the only one not entirely happy with the "correction"....along with several not happy with the content of the stupid question in the first place.

[SAJ]

It is a personal pronoun, case 'possessive', used as an adjective.

[krb]

The correct answer would be that "her" is a dangling modifier.

[Right Wing Professor]

here's what "they" say: the sentence was incorrect because the pronoun in the sentence -- "her" -- was used improperly. Keegan said pronouns should only refer to nouns and in this case Morrison's name is used as an adjective.

I disagree. Toni Morrison is a proper noun, used in the genitive case.

If only these self-styled grammarians knew some Latin.

[ZinGirl]

Drango's hairy navel genius has enabled him to post on this thread.

no, no, no...haven't you been reading? Only Toni Morrison, herself, is allowed to be a genius (according to the wonderful folks concocting the PSAT)....she's just not allowed to modify herself....or something like that.