Relative clauses and the meaning of the context

Question

I saw this sentence in a book "Keep the aspidistra flying"

No need to repeat the blasphemous comments which everyone who had known Gran'pa Comstock made on that last sentence.

There are two relative clauses in this sentence and I got confused.

"which everyone who had known Gran"pa made on that last sentence" modifies"comments"

"who had known Gran'pa Comstock made on that last sentence" modifies "everyone"

So is it people who know Gran'pa Comstock made the comments or Gran'pa Comstock made the comments?

And the object behind the verb "made" is "the blasphemous comments" Am I right?

No need to repeat the blasphemous comments which everyone (who had known Gran'pa Comstock) made on that last sentence. — Karolini, Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 12:35
Yes, you are. Everyone made blasphemous comments on that last sentence. — Karolini, Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 12:57
The object of "made" is "which". In turn, the antecedent of "which" is "the blasphemous comments". So, yes, the object of "repeat" and the object of "made" have the same referent. — Gary Botnovcan, Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 14:08

SamBC · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-09 23:56:28Z

1

(Everyone who had known Gran'pa Comstock) made blasphemous comments. You can just mentally put brackets around the nested relative clauses:

No need to repeat the blasphemous comments (which everyone (who had known Gran'pa Comstock) made on that last sentence).

The object of made is the blasphemous comments, the word order being shifted around thanks to the use of which.

answered Mar 9, 2019 at 23:56

SamBC

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