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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Whose
can 'whose' be used when the Person is not a 'person'. For example, if I want to talk about books, and specify those ones that had pages fall out, would it be:
'the books, whose pages fell out'? Can't really use 'which' here. We come across this quite a lot and are constantly finding roundabout ways to describe what we want to say. Time to do something about it.
Thanks Julia
'the books, whose pages fell out'? Can't really use 'which' here. We come across this quite a lot and are constantly finding roundabout ways to describe what we want to say. Time to do something about it.
Thanks Julia
Top answer
'Whose' is often the only reasonable option. Here is the usage note from the American Heritage Dictionary: 'It has sometimes been claimed that whose is properly used only as the possessive form of who and thus should be restricted to animate antecedents, as in a man whose power has greatly eroded. But there is extensive literary precedent for the use of whose with inanimate antecedents, as in The play, whose style is rigidly formal, is typical of the period.
- 'Whose' is often the only reasonable option.
- Here is the usage note from the American Heritage Dictionary: 'It has sometimes been claimed that whose is properly used only as the possessive form of who and thus should be restricted to animate antecedents, as in a man whose power has greatly eroded.
- But there is extensive literary precedent for the use of whose with inanimate antecedents, as in The play, whose style is rigidly formal, is typical of the period.
- In an earlier survey this example was acceptable to a large majority of the Usage Panel.
- Those who avoid this usage employ of which: The play, the style of which is rigidly formal, is typical of the period.
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1 Answers
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'Whose' is often the only reasonable option. Here is the usage note from the American Heritage Dictionary:
'It has sometimes been claimed that whose is properly used only as the possessive form of who and thus should be restricted to animate antecedents, as in a man whose power has greatly eroded. But there is extensive literary precedent for
'It has sometimes been claimed that whose is properly used only as the possessive form of who and thus should be restricted to animate antecedents, as in a man whose power has greatly eroded. But there is extensive literary precedent for
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