inanimate "who"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My students hardly ever used "who" for people; they preferred "that."

Now, "who" takes on a new role:

CNN: "This is a big metropolitan city who's been through this before."

Of course, "whose" is widely applied to things. (When the studes found
themselves in that possessive situation - which was almost never - they
might try "thats" or, when pressed to fill in a blank, "which's": "an idea
which's time has come.")

That was thirty years ago, and Inglish has come a long way.

Also, people live in cities, so there's, like, some conceptual connection
with "who."


JL


--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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