Can an an inanimate object "seek"?

Question

I've searched various grammar sites and can't find an answer to whether an inanimate object can seek to obtain something. For example:

For instance, in 2017, we received over 80 requests for vehicles seeking upgrades under the new program.

or

Vehicles seeking importation will need to obtain a special permit.

Answer 1

This is just the figure of speech metonymy, where one noun is substituted for a closely associated one. Some classic examples would be:

• "The Crown accepted an ambassador." It is not the headpiece, but the person who wore the crown who accepted the ambassador.
• "To negotiate the deal we had to call in the suits". Here we didn't call in clothing but the people wearing the clothing: the lawyers or executives.
• "Silicon Valley has brought a revolution in communication". Here it is not the valley but the companies in that valley that brought the revolution.

It is one of the most common figures of speech in English.

In your case "vehicles seeking upgrades", it is rather the vehicle owners seeking upgrades. "Vehicles seeking importation" it is the car buyers who are seeking importation.

Why use such a figure of speech? There are a few different possible reasons. One might be that with it the phrase is more concise, probably the case in your example. Another might be to emphasize some specific aspect of the refrant. For example, the ambassador wasn't accepted by some dude called Charles, but a person who embodied the monarchy and government of the country.

Answer 2

It's certainly not incorrect per se to use 'seek' after a subject whose referent is non-sentient (ie not an 'agent' but a 'natural cause' / 'force', so the action is non-volitional). Examples from the internet include:

• In this type of construction, fire travels quickly, straight upwards, and seeks cracks in walls                                                    [Kim Chiomento; Unionville Times, Jan 2015]

• The atmosphere is a very good insulator [and] lightning seeks the path of least resistance. *                                     *                                             [Forbes]

• Liquids seek their own level regardless of the shape and cross-**sectional area of the vessels they are kept in.                                                          [Department of Education]

Note that there is personification in these usages, a fluidity reminiscent of a life-flow. There are doubtless many situations where 'seek' applied to a subject/direct object pair sounds inappropriate and/or ludicrous. 'A vacuum seeks to be filled' can be found on the internet but sounds hollow. 'Cars seeking permits' applies 'seek' to an extremely impersonal referent (apologies to Herbie and Lightning McQueen etc), hardly displaying the pseudolife of a liquid or fire. Undriven cars don't do anything. Admittedly, a laboriously transferred usage is sometimes seen:

• The Order specifies the requirements that must be met by vehicles seeking to rely on such authorisation.                                                                                                          [Legislation.gov.uk]

but I think this would be far better rephrased, with 'whose drivers [seek]' inserted.

And it's probably more often derivatives that are idiomatic when used with non-volitional subjects:

• Phototropism (light-seeking growth) is applied to the plants concerned.
• We have heat-seeking missiles.
• There is at least one gravity-seeking position indicator.

Answer 3

Certainly, in (at least) four ways.

In your first example, the thing doing the seeking is "requests". Presumably the requests are made by people. Of course in real life it is the people doing the seeking. The "requests" are just a type or means of doing this seeking. So if the requests are a form of some kind, perhaps on paper, perhaps on a computer, it is not the paper or the web page that is seeking something, but the person who filled it out. This is normal and common: we are talking about the means by which a person seeks. "The requests seek ..." "The phone call seeks ..." Etc.

Your second example is much less common and I, for one, find it strange. Clearly it is not the vehicles themselves that seek to be imported, but the owners of those vehicles who seek to import them. People speak like this occasionally, ascribing an action or motive to an inanimate object -- or to a plant or animal -- when what they really mean is that some person who owns or is otherwise responsible for that object is taking that action or has that motive.

A third way is when we ascribe something to a group or an office. Like, "The committee decided ..." or "The company worked on this problem ..." The company, as a company, as a corporate entity, is just a piece of paper. You could say that it didn't literally work on anything, it just sat there in the filing cabinet. But of course what we mean is that the people who make up the company did this.

Finally, an inanimate object is capable of seeking (or performing some other action), if not literally than at least in a way analogous to a person. Like we often say, "The computer searched the files" or "The car tried to start".

Answer 4

It's the requests that are seeking upgrades. Yours was a question seeking an answer. You are presumably animate, and one can infer that the authors of the requests were animate.

On the other hand, a computer can ask for information, based on its programming. How do you define "animate"?

Answer 5

In 2017, we received over 80 requests for vehicles seeking upgrades under the new program.

The sentence is ambiguous.

It's impossible to know whether a new component for the vehicle was being requested, e.g. in a special offer where a component could be replaced with a better one, perhaps because the original one had issues, or if a new vehicle was being requested under some form of trade-in program.

If vehicles are being requested, you can simplify the sentence and eliminate the redundant "seeking...", to make it clearer. The indefinite article is optional.

In 2017, we received over 80 requests for (a) vehicle upgrade under the new program.

You could also change the noun phrase to vehicle upgrade requests:

In 2017, we received over 80 vehicle upgrade requests under the new program.