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The "Which" Rule

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shahan25
 Post subject: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:21 pm 
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Posts: 8
Guys,
I thought the pronoun “which” unambiguously refers to the noun next to it. However, some recent GMAT Official Guide problems (OG12) have thrown me off a little bit. Consider the following sentence:

“Bob’s gifts to Joe, which were expensive, outnumber his gifts to anyone else”

I think “which” here clearly refers to gifts since Joe will need to be referred by the word “who” so this sentence is correct but can you please confirm if there is another rule that I am missing.

There is a OG problem of this nature that I tried to put a post on but for some reason I wasn’t allowed to (I am a MGMAT ex-student).

Thank you for your help!
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esledge
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 12:49 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 901
Location: St. Louis, MO
Hi shahan25,

You had trouble posting the OG question because we are prohibited from discussing those copyrighted questions on this forum.

Your original example is the perfect way to ask such questions, so thanks!

shahan25 wrote:
“Bob’s gifts to Joe, which were expensive, outnumber his gifts to anyone else”

I think “which” here clearly refers to gifts since Joe will need to be referred by the word “who” so this sentence is correct but can you please confirm if there is another rule that I am missing.


You are right that the which/who distinction helps make the meaning clear, but there IS another rule. Usually, "which" touches the noun it is intended to modify, but the exception is when another essential modifier of that noun intervenes.

"Bob's gifts" is a grammatically complete noun, but the meaning is not fully clear without the essential modifier "to Joe." There's not an easy way to phrase this without having two modifiers after "gifts," so this is OK.

Some similar examples:
The framed painting of the Statue of Liberty, which was dusty, has been removed for cleaning.

The presentation on bridges, which was informative, has really sparked interest in engineering careers.

Sophia's recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which uses vanilla and dark chocolate, won first prize at the state fair.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT
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goelmohit2002
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:53 pm 
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Students


Posts: 226
Hi Emily,

Thanks for awesome explanation !!

Can you please point to a location/web link that talks about these exceptions in a bit more detail. Or this is the only exception to the relative pronoun rule.

Kindly tell is this rule applicable to all the relative pronouns like who/whose/that/whom/where/which ?

Thanks
Mohit
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goelmohit2002
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:37 am 
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Students


Posts: 226
Hi Emily,

Can you please look at the following post...this is a GPREP Question.....

Can you please tell why the same which rule is not followed here ?

http://www.beatthegmat.com/publishing-d ... 24630.html

Thanks
Mohit
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pee_be9
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:09 am 
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Students


Posts: 2
Could you please advise whether this exemption 'which' rule is applied to other relative pronouns? (who, whom, whose, that, where, when)

Thank you very much.
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:49 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
let me refine emily's previous post a bit.

from what we've seen, the gmat will primarily use "which" to refer to "X of Y" when Y itself is ineligible to serve as the antecedent.

let's take a look at emily's examples:

esledge wrote:
The framed painting of the Statue of Liberty, which was dusty, has been removed for cleaning.


while i won't say this is 100% wrong, it'd be unlikely to appear on the test, since "which" could conceivably be the statue.

Quote:
The presentation on bridges, which was informative, has really sparked interest in engineering careers.


perfect.
"bridges" CAN'T be the antecedent, since "which was..." is SINGULAR. therefore, this is unambiguous.

Quote:
Sophia's recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which uses vanilla and dark chocolate, won first prize at the state fair.


perfect.
"cookies" CAN'T be the antecedent, since "which uses..." is SINGULAR. therefore, this is unambiguous.
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ratheeshmallaya
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 3:04 am 
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Students


Posts: 24
goelmohit2002 wrote:
Hi Emily,

Can you please look at the following post...this is a GPREP Question.....

Can you please tell why the same which rule is not followed here ?

http://www.beatthegmat.com/publishing-d ... 24630.html

Thanks
Mohit


Hi mohit,
I guess you are referring to options b) and d) here. In these answer options, "...in the country" is NOT a necessary modifier for market and thus does not classify to fit the rule mentioned by Ron or Emily.

Please correct me if i am wrong.
Top 
Ben Ku
 Post subject: Re: The "Which" Rule
 Post Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:08 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 823
ratheeshmallaya,
Quote:
I guess you are referring to options b) and d) here. In these answer options, "...in the country" is NOT a necessary modifier for market and thus does not classify to fit the rule mentioned by Ron or Emily.

Please correct me if i am wrong.


You are right. In options (B) and (D), "which ranges" follows and seems to incorrectly modify "the country" since that's the noun it touches, and "in the country" is not an essential modifier.

_________________
Ben Ku
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT
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