0

let Israeli citizens back into four Jewish settlements in the West Bank which had been evacuated after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005. -----quoted from Economist 3/25 Blockquote

what does the word "which" in the sentence refer to?

Does it refer to "the Israel citizens" or the "four settlements"?

if it refer to the Israeli citizens, why they didn't used "who" to refer to person?

Improve this question
3
  • 5
    Which definitely refers back to "four settlements". If the writer had wanted to refer back to "the Israel citizens", he could have used who to do this, but because that would put the wh- word "too far away" from its referent, the text would probably need some resequencing: ...let Israeli citizens who had been evacuated back into four Jewish settlements in the West Bank...* But things would get more awkward there if you tried to include ...after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005.
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 23 at 10:28
  • @FumbleFingers Looks like a proper answer to me.
    – Peter Jennings
    Apr 23 at 14:01
  • "Which" has the nominal "Jewish settlements in the West Bank" as antecedent. Note that the determiner "four", although part of the larger NP "four Jewish settlements in the West Bank" is not part of the nominal and hence not part of the antecedent.
    – BillJ
    Apr 23 at 15:55

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

what does the word "which" in the sentence refer to? Does it refer to "the Israel citizens" or the "four settlements"?

It refers to the Jewish settlements.

(although syntactically I don't see why it couldn't refer to "the West Bank" also. But that is logically incorrect).

if it refer to the Israeli citizens, why they didn't used "who"

The fact they didn't use "who" is precisely how you know they aren't referring to "the Israel citizens".

The author might have written "who".

"which" indicates the pronoun is pointing back to an (object/thing/non-person) instead of a "who".

Improve this answer
1
  • I think you're expected to know that Israel didn't evacuate the West Bank, just a few settlements. There's no grammatical way of knowing
    – Stuart F
    Sep 26 at 15:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .