Can a book "receive" the Nobel Prize, or does the recipient have to be the person who wrote it?
I work as an English teacher at high school in South Korea. Recently for the midterm exams there was a question asking students to unscramble the words Korean / occurred / me / in / no / it / ever received / to / the / has / that / Nobel Prize / Literature The correct answer was supposed to have been "it occurred to me that no Korean has ever received the Nobel Prize in Literature" However, some students wrote "it occurred to me that no Literature in Korean has ever received the Nobel Prize" Some of the other English teachers here (non-native speakers) think that the 2nd answer is wrong and asked me (native speaker) for my opinion. The 2nd answer seems a little strange because I don't think of books as receiving prizes; I think of their authors as the recipients. However, I would say that a book "received criticism" in the same way that an author "receives criticism". Other combinations of nouns also work fine with receive, such as "the school receives money from the government" ... so why can't a book receive a prize? My basic feeling just because an answer seems a little strange or non-standard doesn't make it wrong. Grammatically, I see nothing wrong with the 2nd answer, and the meaning is clear so I suggested giving full marks for it. The confusion comes from the fact that "Korean" can either mean the language or a Korean national. If we wanted the phrase "Nobel Prize in Literature", "in" should have been grouped with one of those two nouns ... our mistake, not the kids'. Thoughts?
Standards & Testing - 1 Answers
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The author receives the Nobel Prize for writing the book.
