What does 其 mean in 授予其创意改变世界和影响今天所有人类的人?

Question

In the following sentence:

计算机历史博物馆从1987年起每年颁发会员奖，授予其创意改变世界和影响今天所有人类的人。

The meaning would be something like the following:

The computer history museum issues the prize from 1987, giving it to people who changed the world and made an influence on all the people.

However, I don't understand what 其 here refers to. According to a dictionary, it means "that" or "it" or "theirs" or any such demonstrative pronouns, but in this case:

1. 其 here refers to 会员奖 and 创意 is a verb, making the sentence 授予(V)会员奖(O)人(O)

2. 创意 is a noun, and 其 modifies 创意, making the sentence 授予(V)其创意(O)人(O)

3. Or anything others that I missed

Which is the correct decomposition of grammar in this sentence? And generally how should 其 be used in these cases?

Answer 1

其 means 他/她的 (his/her), it modifies 创意, so 其创意 means "his/her 创意".

The structure of the whole sentence is V+O, i.e. 授予(verb) + 人(object). "其创意改变世界和影响今天所有人类的" is a long modifier which modifies "人". The museum award the prize to "people", what kind of people they are? The people "whose 创意改变世界和影响今天所有人类".

Answer 2

So it seems that you've understood the first half so I'll only explain the second half.

授予 [(其创意 改变世界 和 影响今天所有人类) 的人]

• The part in square brackets tells you who gets the prize, basically it's 人 (some people)
• The part in parentheses, acting as an attribute clause, modifies 人

The subject of the attribute clause is 其创意 (their innovation/creativity), so 其 here refers to the same people as the one who gets the prize.

It's sort of like the use of the word dont in French. (... dont la créativité ...)