Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 April 23

= April 23 =

What is the part of speech? What is the possessive form for "which" or "that" when applied to non-humans?
What is the technical (grammar) word to describe this part of speech (those listed in bold)? Smith is the doctor whose research will be published next month. My secretary is the one whose car was stolen. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:25, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Pronoun. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:35, 23 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Yeah, but I thought it had some "special" name or function. No?  It's not just a "regular" pronoun like I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they, etc.  I don't think so, at least.   Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 06:06, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Relative pronoun.--Shirt58 (talk) 06:16, 23 April 2016 (UTC)


 * OK. I read that page.   So, it looks like "whose" is the possessive form of the relative pronoun "who".  So, here is the real question that I wanted to get to.  Generally speaking, a human being would carry the pronoun "who", while an inanimate object would be referred to as "that".  Compare John is the neighbor who gave me a ride and The blue corvette is the car that hit me.  So, my question is: what is the proper possessive form when you are talking about an inanimate object?  If you are talking about a person, we might say: Smith is the doctor whose research will be published next month. or My secretary is the one whose car was stolen.  What about the possessive case for an inanimate object?  For example:  The blue corvette is the car _____ (whose?) license plate is illegible.  Or, City Hall is the building _____ (whose?) front door is locked.   What is the proper word to place in those blanks?  I want to know the relative pronoun possessive form for an inanimate object (i.e., non-human).  I am not interested in rewriting or restructuring the sentence.  Thanks.    Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:33, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Following links in the article Relative pronoun, I quickly found this table. --Wrongfilter (talk) 16:37, 23 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks. So, it is grammatically correct to say: The blue corvette is the car whose license plate is illegible. And, City Hall is the building whose front door is locked.?  Wow.  That seems odd.  It seems incorrect to my ears. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:30, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, it does sound kind of funny, but "that" doesn't really have an equivalent to "whose". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:09, 23 April 2016 (UTC)


 * See this discussion from a couple of years ago. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 20:47, 23 April 2016 (UTC)


 * There's always …the building whereof the door… —Tamfang (talk) 07:47, 24 April 2016 (UTC)


 * That page cited above (English relative clauses) specifically states: The possessive form whose is necessarily used with non-human as well as human antecedents because no possessive forms exist for which or that. Otherwise, to avoid, for example, using whose in "...the car whose engine blew up.." would require a periphrastic phrasing, such as "...the car the engine of which blew up", or "...the car of which the engine blew up". So, I guess that's a pretty direct answer to the question.  Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:42, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:31, 26 April 2016 (UTC)