... ... your favorite group? (AE)

[trans]

[1] What's your favorite rock group?
[2] Who's your favorite rock group?
[3] *Who're your favorite rock group?

Only [2] is given in the key to the task (to my great confusion). Just that [1] sound all OK to me, and while I try to follow the logic of [2] I start wondering why not [3] then? Which of [1] and [2] is more "grammatically correct', if I may say? Which is more appropriate in conversation? What's the difference? And whether [3] is possible too, say, in BE?

Thank you for your comments in advance.

 

[Raymott]

[1] What's your favorite rock group?
[2] Who's your favorite rock group?
[3] *Who're your favorite rock group?

Only [2] is given in the key to the task (to my great confusion). Just that [1] sound all OK to me, and while I try to follow the logic of [2] I start wondering why not [3] then? Which of [1] and [2] is more "grammatically correct', if I may say? Which is more appropriate in conversation? What's the difference? And whether [3] is possible too, say, in BE?

Thank you for your comments in advance.

"Group" in this case is singular. The answer will be one group with one name. I'd say 1, but 2 is probably not wrong.

 

[trans]

I see now, so "who", same as "what", relates here to an inanimate group, not to its multiple animate members (musicians), and is meant singular.

What/who is your favorite singer/rock group?

Thank you for you help.

 

[Tdol]

3 is possible in BrE.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's "who is your favorite band?" A group of people are a "who" not a "what."

I wouldn't be surprised to hear "what" though.

 

[trans]

Interestingly, google search gives the following results:

What / Who is your favorite band?
2.930.000 / 2.020.000 = 3/2

What / Who is your favourite band?
366.000 / 234.000 = 3/2


What / Who is your favorite singer?
3.020.000 / 971.000 = 3/1 (!)

What / Who is your favourite singer?
217.000 / 271.000 = 3/4

 

[trans]

It's "who is your favorite band?" A group of people are a "who" not a "what."

I wouldn't be surprised to hear "what" though.

Thank you. Now I see, a group of people in [2] are (or is ?) thought as singular and animate.

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes. Americans tend to consider groups to be singular. The band is touring Europe right now. Congress is in session. The committee is working on a proposal.

 

[Tdol]

It's "who is your favorite band?" A group of people are a "who" not a "what."

I wouldn't be surprised to hear "what" though.

What sounds fine to me- it's common enough in BrE. All three possibilities in the first post are equally OK to me. ;-)

 

[trans]

I just realized that I quoted preliminary search result numbers which diminish drastically when you reach last pages of the lists. I feel sorry for having possibly misguided you, here you are some smaller (and more consistent) numbers:

What is your favorite band? / What is your favourite band?
478/448

Who is your favorite band? / Who is your favourite band?
451/415

Who are your favorite band? / Who are your favourite band?
25/57

Thank you, Tdol, too!

 

[Raymott]

I just realized that I quoted preliminary search result numbers which diminish drastically when you reach last pages of the lists. I feel sorry for having possibly misguided you, here you are some smaller (and more consistent) numbers:

What is your favorite band? / What is your favourite band?
478/448

Who is your favorite band? / Who is your favourite band?
451/415

Who are your favorite band? / Who are your favourite band?
25/57

We don't have much faith in Google searches here, for this sort of thing. Many people using English on the web don't actually speak English. You probably should use the British or American corpora of native speakers.
(Someone can give you their URLs).

 

[trans]

Thank you, I immediately followed your advice at CORPORA: 45-425 million words each: free online access - to find out that searching the web is still a good tool for getting the general picture.
To believe corpora search results, a good part of native speakers would not actually speak English, for COCA gives only "What's your favorite band?" (x2) to the string: who|what [be] [ap*] fav*rite band|group.

 

[BobK]

Also, the name of the bands may influence a response:

Of Dire Straits, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin, what's your favourite band.?

But

Of the Kaiser Chiefs, the Arctic Monkeys, and Fine Young Cannibals, who are your favourite band?

b

 

[trans]

Excuse me for sharing with you again on this topic here (I should have started the thread elsewhere on this forum), it might be that this sort of contradiction routes from grammatical ambiguity of this particular type of questions “Who/what is you favorite band?”, which you can not formally say (without changing the copula) if it questions the subject or the compliment and what the answer to it be: “U2 is my favorite band” or “My favorite band is [STRIKE]U2[/STRIKE] a banch of crooks”. I [STRIKE]dare[/STRIKE] suppose that the choice of a question word (and relevance of “animateness”) might partually depend on whether we are [STRIKE]rather[/STRIKE] questioning the the compliment or the subject:

What (comlement)

What is your favorite singer?
My favorite singer is [STRIKE]Sting[/STRIKE] a big name.
[STRIKE]It [/STRIKE]He is [STRIKE]Sting[/STRIKE] a big name.

What did your favorite singer use to be?
My favorite singer used to be [STRIKE]Sting[/STRIKE] such a bore.
[STRIKE] It[/STRIKE] He used to be [STRIKE]Sting[/STRIKE] such a bore.

Who (subject)

Who is your favorite singer?
Sting used to be my favorite singer.
Sting is. He is.

Who used to be your favorite singer?
Sting is my favorite singer.
Sting did. He did.

When it comes to the bands, here in subject questions some might wish to agree the verb in number with the compliment rather than the subject:

What (complement)

What is your favorite band?
My favorite band are [STRIKE]U2/Animals[/STRIKE] all real stars now.
They are [STRIKE]U2/Animals[/STRIKE] all real stars now.

What did your favorite band use to be?
My favorite band used to be [STRIKE]U2/Animals[/STRIKE] a pack of loosers.
They used to be [STRIKE]U2/Animals[/STRIKE] a pack of loosers.

Who (subject)

Who/(What) is/(are) your favorite band?
U2 is my favorite band. Animals are/is my favorite band.
U2 is. They are. Animals are. They are

Who/(What) used to be your favorite band?
U2 used to be my favorite band. Animals used to be my favorite band.
U2 did. They did. Animals did. They did.

[STRIKE]This seems to explain in a way how come questions like “What’s your favorite singer?” and “Who is your favorite band?” are equally acceptable.[/STRIKE]

It seems to show that if a question like "What's your favorite singer?" is possible in a certain contex (what' he now?), it is not at all supposed to be answered "It's Eminem", but rather "He is a big boss now".

What do you think?

 

[SoothingDave]

I can see how "who/what" is you favorite band can be interchangeable. But I can't figure out why anyone would say "what is your favorite singer?"

A "singer" is a person. It should be used with "who."

 

[trans]

A group of people are a "who" not a "what."

A "singer" is a person. It should be used with "who."

That's exactly what I mean. When you make an mental effort to see it as a subject question to a person/group of persons, you use "who". It's like conscious use of language, reflecting our understanding of how English should work.

But it not always does as it should, believe you or not B4 - Let's improve our English!: unit 4- What's your favorite singer? It's Eminem

What I wanted to say, “who” and “what” are not exactly interchangeable, they might represent different perceptions of the situation, where we either question the subject in "Sting (s) is my favorite singer" (= He is my favorite singer), which we believe to be a person (he): "Who (s) is your favorite singer?" or we question the compliment in "My favorite singer is [STRIKE]Sting[/STRIKE] a real star (c) now" (= [STRIKE]It's Sting[/STRIKE] He/Sting is a real star now) where, for some reason, we can do with "What (c) is your favorite singer?" (= "What is Sting now?").

[STRIKE]I might be stretching the truth when I interpret the latter as a "compliment question" ("What (c) did your favorite singer use to be?"), they both migh be object questions with unmarked ("what", when we do not care) and marked ("who", when we mean speaking about persons) question pronouns - but let it be someone else's explanation, I start liking mine.[/STRIKE]

 

[Raymott]

But it not always does as it should, believe you or not B4 - Let's improve our English!: unit 4- What's your favorite singer? It's Eminem

Are you assuming this blog is written by a native speaker?

"2000-He is arrested during a fight at a store of cars"
A store of cars? This is not colloquial English.

"2008- Eminem releases an autobiography entitled The Way I Am,detailing his struggles against poverty,drugs,fame,heartbreak and depression"
No spaces after commas.
3 comentários:

This was written by a Brazilian. It's not a page on which you can judge what is good (or even normal) English and what isn't.

 

[trans]

You are right indeed, of not many examlpes on the net hardly any represents authentic speech. I eat my words.

 

[trans]

I did some aftermath and seem to have found serious mistakes in my earlier posts. I have possibly corrected them. Hope they sound less absurd now.