Which sentence structure is correct?

Question

1. The security issued by corporations, which entitles the owner with voting rights.

2. The security issued by corporations which entitles the owner with voting rights.

I want the "which entitles the owner with voting rights" part to refer to the "security" not the "corporation". So, should I use the comma or not? Please enlighten me...

actually it'll be a fragment, i'm writing an entry for a dictionary. so, how about this:

common stock: A corporate issued security which gives the owner voting and dividend rights.

now, should there be a comma before which? thank you all for the rapid answer

Answer 1

The fact that the verb 'entitles' is in the singular tells me that you are referring to 'security' and not to 'corporations'.

Good legal writing should be readable without the assistance of any punctuation except a full stop. (That, at least, is what I was taught.)

Your sentence is not, in fact a complete one because it has no predicate, just two adjectival clauses defining security. If it were complete, I might hazard a re-write of it in order to make it less ambiguous.

Incidentally, it should be 'entitles [something] to'. An alternative would be 'invests [something] with'.

If all you need to say is that the security entitles the owner to voting rights, then lose the which and use commas if you prefer. If you look at most legal documents you will see that they are written with a minimum of punctuation and should read clearly as such. However, when written to be read, it is sometimes helpful to insert punctuation - but only as much as is necessary to make the text pleasant to view on the page.

Edit: Your dictionary entry is fairly good the way it is. A comma does not help the sense in any way, so should be avoided. However, the definition of a common stock is that it is a security, so this word should really precede the rest of the sentence.

Common Stock: A security issued by corporations and entitling the owner to voting rights.

Answer 2

I think 1, with the comma, is correct. But (and you may already know this) it is not a complete sentence. There is no predicate. It would have to say something like, "The security issued by corporations, which entitles the owner with voting rights, is described in the annual report."

Answer 3

I'm not sure about the comma, but your verb form is correct for security.

Security "entitles".
The corporations would "entitle" (no s).

In general, in written English language, you should try to avoid "by" statements and the use of "which" and "that" for descriptive phrases.

I'm not an expert, just someone who did well in English in school, but could you try something like:

"Corporations issue security, entitling the owner with voting rights." ?

Or even, eliminate the "by" but still use the "which" and say:

"Corporations issue security, which entitles the owner..." ?

Answer 4

The first is correct. "Which" should always be preceded by a comma in formal writing.

Not to go into generative grammar, but "the security issued by corporations" is the noun here. It's called a "noun phrase," which just means it's a string of words that behaves as if it were a one-word noun.

It is also evident by the context that the dependent clause ("which entitles...") refers to the security, not the corporation. Unfortunately, there's no way in English to make these situations 100% unabmiguous 100% of the time. But it's rare that this kind of construction results in ambiguity. So you're fine.

(But this technically isn't a sentence. I'm guessing you're aware of that.)

Answer 5

I think neither option. I would write

"The security, issued by corporations, entitles the owner with voting rights."

I have added an extra comma after the word 'security' and removed the word 'which'.

Answer 6

A sentence asked which was not complete. How am I to know (that) being incomplete. Longing to be predicated and be neat. Would I with comma then be sweet? Anyway, I am just a defination and care not for completeness. I am brief and senseless.
So far there are two complete sentences in this explaination. How would you puncuate sentence fragments?

WHICH usually sets off information that is included but not essential to the sentence's meaning; THAT would do that.
As you've used which but have then no meaning from which to set off non-essential information; you don't need commas.

essential: He said that he would come.
nonessential: He said which I felt was really strange that he would come. This is a real sentence by the way using which which should be set off by commas which you could figure out yourself if you but knew how to write a sentence. I am going to show you where the commas would go in my sentence: He said, which I felt was really strange, that he would come. Also you could put the non-essential part at the end and then need only one comma. I mean if you are into saving commas.

Answer 7

To get your meaning, the sentence would have to be:

The security, which entitles the owner with voting rights, is issued by corporations.

Or:

The security, issued by corporations, entitles the owner with voting rights.

Answer 8

with something as important as this, say .. "The security issued by corporations, which security entitles the owner with voting rights
or even more formally, "The security issued by corporations, which aforementioned secutiry entitles the owner with voting rights"

You would not want to be in court arguing about a comma.

Answer 9

Dude, you really shouldn't count on Yahoo! Answers to help you write a dictionary!

But here's my take: "corporate-issued security" is definitely better. Use a hyphen when the two words function together as an adjective.

I much prefer "that" to "which" for introducing a restrictive clause, and a definition is the quintessential occasion for a restrictive clause. Plus, no question of a comma!

Answer 10

Both are incorrect. makes it seem as if "entitles the owner with voting rights" is referring to the corporation. I don't even understand the sentence. Where's the verb?
try: "The security entitles the owner with voting rights, and is issued by corporations." Sounds clearer to me.