collective nouns that refer to group of people

[manhhiep2509]

I am not sure whether some collective nouns that refer to group of people such as community, company, and committee could be modified by who or by which.

Please explain the usage of relative clause in this case.
Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

I am not sure whether some collective nouns that refer to group of people such as community, company, and committee could be modified by who or by which.

"Which".
"Who" is only used for nouns that are literally people.

Please explain the usage of relative clause in this case.
Thanks.

I'm not familiar with the term "relative clause". Please clarify, thanks.

[manhhiep2509]

I am not sure whether some collective nouns that refer to group of people such as community, company, and committee could be modified by who or by which.

"Which".
"Who" is only used for nouns that are literally people.

Please explain the usage of relative clause in this case.
Thanks.

I'm not familiar with the term "relative clause". Please clarify, thanks.

Hi Ron.

I am sorry for the mistake. When I said "relative clause", I meant "relative pronoun".
My question is that whether whether some collective nouns that refer to group of people such as community, company, and committee could be modified by who or by which. In some grammar book, the authors say that since committee is non-human nouns, it can be modified by which rather than by who.

According to the GMAT, is the statement of the authors correct?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

I am sorry for the mistake. When I said "relative clause", I meant "relative pronoun".
My question is that whether whether some collective nouns that refer to group of people such as community, company, and committee could be modified by who or by which.

Yes -- this is answered by what I wrote up there. Quoting the previous post:
It's "which".
"Who" is only used for nouns that are literally people.

Committees are not people. (They are made up of people, but they aren't people.)

According to the GMAT, is the statement of the authors correct?

Remember that there's no "special GMAT English". It's standard written English.
In standard written English, you'd use "which" (or "that"), and not "who", for these things.