Modifiers Strategy: Adjectives & Adverbs

[mazhar.hussain]

Hi,

Just few days back, I received my MGMAT complete set here in Pakistan and it is quite a good experience to have this magical series with me now.

I started my preparation with verbal part and with SC guide particularly. A litlle query I have reagrding the subject which I want to mention here.

With reference to page 83 of SC guide,
"
Wrong: James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor
Right: James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSED Irish ancestor

James Joyce is may or may not be Max's ancestor, but James Joyce was certainly Irish. Thus we want the adjective supposed, so that we can modify the noun ancestor."

I could not understand this example and the further phase of this example in which grandmother is mentioned.

How can we determine in the first part that James Joyce was certainly Irish & how do we know in second part that the question is regarding whether the grandmother was Irish or not????

I simply could not get these two examples, if you can explain it with another example I will be grateful!!

Thanks in advance!!!

[RonPurewal]

as for "another example", here's the official problem that inspired that particular discussion:

post4312.html

[chitrangada.maitra]

"Max's grandmother is his supposedly Irish ancestor"

In this sentence, the authors intent is self explanatory because it says 'grandmother'.

However, I found the first sentence confusing.

'JJ is Max's supposedly Irish ancestor'
'JJ is Max's supposed Irish ancestor'

How do you determine the author's intent here?

Thanks,

[cpallaka]

whenenver we see two or more modifiers before noun in sentence, we have to ask a question: whether first modifier modifies 2nd modifier or noun?
so here question is whether supposedly should modify Irish or ancestor?

In Max's grandmother is his supposedly Irish ancestor.
we know that Max's grandmother is already ancestor because she is grandmother. what we don't know is whether she is Irish or not. so the word before Irish should modify Irish instead of ancestor. irish is adjective so we need an adverb. supposedly is correct here

In James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor
we don't know that whether James Joyce is ancestor or not. Irish before ancestor does not help us to answer this question. so supposedly should modify ancestor to answer our question whether James Joyce is ancestor or not. Because ancestor is noun, we need adjective to modify ancestor. supposed is correct here

I hope this helps

[tim]

thanks, cpallaka..