Dear Stephen, thanks for your answer, but unfortunately nobody has answered my actual question which was whether "partnerships" could be subsumed under the term "companies", or to put it another way whether this phrase needs to be translated literally or not. I did not ask about the meaning of P.gesellschaft or K.gesellschaft and nor did I ask whether the word for partnerships is the same in the US and UK.
As my question implies, I tend to the view that this phrase should NOT be translated literally, and I had hoped for a discussion on this (thanks to M Marks for your answer here). Let me set out the case for this.
The point is that this phrase arises from the context of German law. German law recognizes the "gesellschaft" and in terms of gesellschaften set up for a business purpose there are 2 types: PG and KG. PG and KG make up all the companies that there are. In other words, to say "PG oder KG" (in this context) is really to say "all companies". The clause is not really enumerating different types of companies, but simply lending weight to the definition of companies IN GENERAL by mentioning the two sole constituents. Also, there may be a linguistic need to say PG and KG in German because a distinction needs to be made with non-business Gesellschaften, such as the Görres Gesellschaft or the Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft, or whatever it may be. This is not the case to the same extent with "companies" in English, which already means an association for a business purpose. This much to show that the source text here is heavily contextualized and there is no need to follow it slavishly in translating.
This then leads on to the main question, which to some extent overlaps with this, which is whether "partnerships" in English could be taken to be subsumed in the term "companies". I would say it can. A company can be any association of person(s) for a business purpose. Wikipedia (not, I admit an absolute authority, but not to be ignored either) agrees with me: "A company is, in general, any group of persons (known as its members) united to pursue a common interest. The term is thus synonymous with association, but more often it is used specifically to identify associations formed for profit, such as the partnership, the joint-stock company, and the for-profit corporation. A company is not necessarily a corporation, and thus may not have a separate existence from its members. A company might also not be able to sue or be sued in its own name, and thus would not be considered to be a legal person. Whether a company has either of these characteristics depends on the law of the jurisdiction." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_(law)). So it would seem to me that "companies" could be taken to refer to partnerships as well.
As for Margaret Marks' answer (why is this "not for points" by the way? You have answered the question), while I think that "partnerships and corporations" is a perfectly Ok translation, I am not so sure that it comes closest to the contextual meaning of the German. As I say, I think "PG oder KG" just means "all types of Gesellschaften", whereas it is not so clear that "partnerships and corporations" has the same connotation. Since, according to Wikipedia at least, companies may be taken to include partnerships, I would argue it is acceptable to simply say "companies" here.
peer agreement (net): +5