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It is about this sentence:

In the case of N=3, which the celebrated Neil discovery is about, the best approximation is proven to be built in an interesting way.

I feel that 'about' can be put ahead? Namely, 'about which is the celebrated Neil discovery'?

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  • @user3169 What do you mean by "The about clause is now incomplete" ? that clause is a full sentence, i.e there is a subject and a verb.
    – Our
    Aug 1, 2016 at 7:44

2 Answers 2

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I think your original formulation is clear, but perhaps not elegent

In the case of N=3, which the celebrated Neil discovery is about, the best approximation is proven to be built in an interesting way.

I think that using "about" here may be the cause of my feeling of unease. Suppose instead we make the Neil discovery more "active"

In the case of N=3, which the celebrated Neil discovery addresses, the best approximation is proven to be built in an interesting way.

we could then do the kind of reordering you suggest

In the case of N=3, which is addressed by the celebrated Neil discovery, the best approximation is proven to be built in an interesting way.

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Source

Close by, in the churchyard, is the famous Rudston stone, from which the village takes its name.

We can put the preposition immediately before the relative pronoun (more formal) or at the end of the relative clause (more informal).


So, in your case the sentence is totally correct.

In the case of N=3,about which the celebrated Neil discovery is, the best approximation is proven to be built in an interesting way.

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    It may be grammatical (I don't feel qualified to comment) but the formulation "about which the celebrated Neil discovery is" strikes me as very odd. I (as a UK English speaker) cannot imagine ever saying or writing this.
    – djna
    Aug 1, 2016 at 11:24
  • @djna Yes indeed sounds odd, but why something sounds odd when the others not ? It is because not being used by people. but it doesn't mean it is not correct grammatically.
    – Our
    Aug 2, 2016 at 4:35

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