英语语法：17 People Versus Entities

Grammar Girl here.
 
Aliza in Alaska recently asked whether she should use who or that to refer to a board of directors.
 
Today we're going to decide whether companies are people or things; in other words, whether you use the relative pronoun who or that when referring to an entity¹ like a company or board of directors. I had to look this up the first time someone asked. For many years, before I became Grammar Girl and had to answer people's questions, I simply rewrote sentences to avoid having to figure this one out.
 
People Versus² Entities³
 
What confused me was that even though companies are entities, they're made up of people. But it turns out that this somewhat confusing fact is actually one of the keys to knowing which pronoun to use.
 
You see, a company, because it is just a legal entity, can't actually do much; it is the company’s people who typically take action. So although you might often see it written that a company laid off 1,000 people, to be precise it was actually the company's managers or the board of directors who laid off all those people. The board members might like you to think the big, bad amorphous⁴ company was to blame, but in the end it was people who made it happen.
 
So instead of letting those managers hide behind bad grammar, call them out! Use proper sentences like this one:
 
Today, the MegaCo directors, who just gave themselves a raise, laid off 1,000 factory workers.
 
Similarly, you would use the word they and not it to continue the paragraph:
 
Today, the MegaCo directors, who just laid off 1,000 factory workers, gave themselves a raise. They should be ashamed of themselves.
 
So there's one rule: when action, good or bad, is taken in a corporate⁵ environment, usually it is the people at the company doing the work, and if you need to use a pronoun you obviously refer to the people as who.
 
Nevertheless, it's true that sometimes you have to refer to a corporation. If a company is acquired, for example, and you want to add a bit of extra information, you might write:
 
MegaCo, the company that was named worst place to work in 2007, will be acquired by MondoCo in December.
 
Similarly, you would use the word it when continuing the paragraph:
 
MegaCo, the company that was named worst place to work in 2007, will be acquired by MondoCo in December. The CEO of MegaCo said the company is expected to sell for one billion dollars despite the fact that it was recently valued at 500 million dollars.
 
Not all companies are bad, but if it helps you remember the grammar rules to think of them as unfeeling, faceless entities, I give you permission to do so.
 
Collective Nouns
 
Another way to think of this is that corporation and board are collective nouns, meaning they are nouns that describe a group, just like orchestra, team, and family. In the United States, collective nouns are usually treated as singular. It would be silly to refer to the corporation as he or she, so the only singular pronoun that remains⁶ is it.*
 
It is more complicated in Britain, where collective nouns are usually treated as plural⁷, but then I think it makes sense to fall back on the idea that corporations and boards are entities and can’t take action without people.
 
Squidgyness
 
It's important to note that this is an area where there is some disagreement. For example, a lawyer wrote in arguing that a corporation should be treated as a person because it is considered a “legal person” under the law, and you can certainly find common usage where people refer to corporations using pronouns such as who and they. I found it interesting that Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage gives a lot of credit for the growing use of plural pronouns to advertising⁸ and PR people at large corporations trying to “present a more human and less monolithic⁹ face to the public.” Nevertheless, most grammarians lean in the direction of companies being nameless, faceless entities that should be treated as singular nouns and not personified.
 
Whose
 
A striking divergence¹⁰ from the idea of not personifying companies, though, is that it is fine to use whose as the possessive pronoun when you’re referring to a company, or a table for that matter. Because English doesn't have a possessive pronoun to go with that or which, we have to use whose, and for the most part, everyone just accepts the idea. For example, there is little objection to sentences such as
 
That is the company whose managers fled the country.
That is the table whose legs were damaged last week.
 
And remember that whose in this case is spelled w-h-o-s-e, not w-h-o-apostrophe-s.
 
So there you go! Companies are just legal entities and should be referred to as such, using words like that and it. It's the company’s people who do most of the work, and you already know that they should be referred to as who or they.

Get-It-Done Guy

 
This week I'm excited to tell you that we've launched the first new Quick and Dirty Tips podcast in a long time, and I think you're going to really like it. The host, Stever Robbins, gives productivity tips, and the show is called “Get-It-Done Guy's Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More.” This week Stever is talking about how to deal with an e-mail backlog¹¹, which could come in really handy next week if you're traveling for Thanksgiving. You can find the Get-It-Done Guy podcast at iTunes and at quickanddirtytips.com, where you can also find a transcript¹² of this podcast, my contact information, photos from the Grammar Girl Flickr group, a link to the Facebook quiz to go with this episode, and all the other great Quick and Dirty Tips podcasts. There's no Behind the Grammar podcast this week because I am behind on writing my book.
 
That's all. Thanks for listening.

1 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

2 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

3 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

4 amorphous   

adj.无定形的

参考例句：

• There was a weakening of the intermolecular bonds,primarily in the amorphous region of the polymer.分子间键合减弱，尤其在聚合物的无定形区内更为明显。
• It is an amorphous colorless or white powder.它是一种无定形的无色或白色粉末。

5 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

8 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

9 monolithic   

adj.似独块巨石的；整体的

参考例句：

• Don't think this gang is monolithic.不要以为这帮人是铁板一块。
• Mathematics is not a single monolithic structure of absolute truth.数学并不是绝对真理的单一整体结构。

10 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

11 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

12 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。