Pete ([info]pjc50) wrote,
@ 2009-04-02 12:52:00
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When noun phrases attack
The Royal Bank of Scotland which window through which a brick can be thrown is not the true Royal Bank of Scotland.

(I was going to make a post about how an institution isn't its branches nor its staff, but I think I'll let that sentence stand for itself :)

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[info]pseudomonas
2009-04-02 12:25 pm UTC (link)
I want that to be "through whose window a brick" but maybe I've just had too much of the noun phrases today.

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[info]like_a_swallow
2009-04-02 09:22 pm UTC (link)
I think it's right, but it confused me, too. It's more common to see it with animate things (whose, not which): The King of Bohemia whose ears through which a centipede runs is not the true King of Bohemia.

I think "whose" is better than "which" here, because possession (a thing which only the literally and metaphorically animate can undertake) is, in someways, being used as a stand-in for component-part-ness, so it's already metaphorically animate.

Recasting is difficult because RBS comes with a "The" at the start, which makes selecting one thereof seem weird. If it was "A", it would be easy to recast inanimately (but loses its surprise and rhetorical impact).

"A Royal Bank of Scotland through the windows of which a brick can be thrown is not the true Royal Bank of Scotland"

But it might be more pleasing (except to grammarians) to say it more informally?

"If you can throw a brick through the Royal Bank of Scotland, then it's not the Royal Bank of Scotland."

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