Is it better to replace 'which' with 'where'?

Question

From Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum. (2017). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. ch.7.6.1 #Landmark and trajector

In formulating expressions about spatial relationships, typically one entity is taken as a reference point (or area) with respect to which another is located.

Is it a typo?

Answer 1

Which and where in relative clauses:

I have simplified the Original Poster's example in (1) below:

1. a point with respect to which [another point is related]

In the relative clause above, the word "which" is the complement of the preposition "to". "Which" is a pronoun, and like other pronouns it replaces noun phrases. In the example above,"which" refers back to the noun phrase "a point". So we understand the relative clause like this:

2. a point [with respect to that point [another point is related]]

The word where replaces preposition phrases, not noun phrases:

3. the bed which [the dog slept in [the bed]]
4. the bed where [the dog slept in [the bed]] ^{(ungrammatical)}

Example (3) where "which" replaces the noun "the bed" is grammatical. Example (4) where "where" is used to replace "the bed" doesn't work.

However, we can change the sentence so that the relative word replaces the whole preposition phrase instead of the noun phrase inside it:

5. the bed which [the dog slept [in the bed]] ^{(ungrammatical)}
6. the bed where [the dog slept [in the bed]]

This time, when the relative word replaces the preposition phrase "in the bed", the word "which" doesn't work and "where" is grammatical*".

For this reason we can see that example (1) needs the word "which" after the preposition "to" where it takes the place of a noun phrase:"that point"

We might wonder whether we could replace the whole preposition phrase "to that point" with the word "where". That would be a good question. The answer is "no", because the word "to" here is part of the fixed phrase "with respect to". Because "with respect to" is a fixed phrase, it cannot be changed and the word "to"cannot be replaced by another word.

That's all folks!