Nona The Brit wrote: |
1) and 2) who/whose is used about people or possibly some animals. You can't use it for organisations.
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This is what I thought until some time ago.
Then I read:
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whose
A. Meaning "of which"
Whose may usefully refer to things <an idea
whose
time has come>. This use of whose, formerly decried by some 19-th
century grammarians and their predecessors, is often an inescapable way
of avoiding clumsiness--e.g.:
--A book
whose humour could have seemed tediously affected turns out to be entertaining and utterly tasteful.
Atlanta J. & Const. 1995.
--About $4.1 million is from buildings
whose owners filed for bankruptcy, she said in an interview.
Washington Post, 1998.
Garner, Modern American Usage, p. 537
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