关于which的指代对象如何判断

小目标750

Next month, state wildlife officials are scheduled to take over the job of increasing the wolf population in the federally designated recovery area, the number of which will however ultimately be dictated by the number of prey in the area.

A. area, the number of which will however

B. area; the size of the population, however, will

C. area, however the number of wolves will

D. area; the number of which will, however,

E. area, when the size of the population will, however,

答案是B.

选项A中在关于which指代“谁”的解释我有些困惑。  OG的解释是  which指代population （不能指代wolf,因为wolf在这里作为形容词结构），但不make sense, 所以A错； 我看到有其他解释说 which就近修饰， 指代area，不make sense ，所以A错。

想请教各位G友， which的指代对象应该如何判断？

希望大神们不吝赐教，共同交流，共同进步，谢谢！

蟹黄味蚕豆

OG的解释是正确的；记不记得曼哈顿sc在讲这一点的时候有一个例题是oil producer 然后后面its price的its不能指代到oil。
说which就近指代area的导致错误，从功利的角度可以接受，因为在大部分情况下是这样的。但其实这么说并不是正确的。which指代并不是只能就近指代，是可以跳跃指代的，例子不止一个。
sc的错误分绝对和相对，which指代较远，就是一个相对错误，而非绝对错误。所以我们只能说这个选项不佳，但并不能百分之一百确定地将这个选项排除掉。但是which因为指代不到wolf，这个选项的错误就变成了绝对错误。

小目标750

蟹黄味蚕豆 发表于 2018-11-17 01:46
OG的解释是正确的；记不记得曼哈顿sc在讲这一点的时候有一个例题是oil producer 然后后面its price的its不 ...

解释的相当清楚！ 感谢！  受教了

SamKboardW

摘自Ron的视频20110331"Which" Modifier, Ambiguous Pronouns

Basic rule of WHICH modifier: ---- they modifiy the noun that precedes the comma. More accurately: ---- a "which" can modify: (1) the noun that immediately precedes the comma or (2) the noun + preposition phrase that immediately precedes the comma

e.g. The old capital building in Benicia, which was the capital city of California for a few years in the 19th century, is a historica landmark.

e.g. The old capital building in Benicia, which was built in under a year when the city was designated capital of California, is now a historical landmark.
这两句都是对的，第一个which修饰Benicia，第二修饰capital building，所以which和that都不是绝对的就近原则, i.e. they can also modify slightly far away noun when this noun is the need of the noun phrase and when such modification makes sense.

但是个人认为也要注意，which最远能修饰的距离也只是noun phrase里面的noun，不能跨过verb去修饰前面的subject
e.g. Benicia has lots of old buildings, which was the capital city of California.
这句which就肯定鞭长莫及修饰不了Benicia，所以是错的。

SamKboardW

根据楼主提的问题：
population in the federally designated recovery area这个noun phrase里面的population和area都可以被修饰，然后因为句意不对双双被eliminate
wolf在这里不作为noun而是一个adj modifier来修饰population

SamKboardW

另外不是很确定，however和semicolon在这里能不能作为判断依据？
通常这两个应该一起出现，所以也可以直接排除A, C, E

小目标750

SamKboardW 发表于 2018-11-19 11:46
摘自Ron的视频20110331"Which" Modifier, Ambiguous Pronouns

Basic rule of WHICH modifier: ---- they m ...

以前对于which修饰用法很模糊，Ron大神分析的很清楚，终于让我弄清了which的修饰用法。 感谢你的分享和解答！  

SamKboardW

小目标750 发表于 2018-11-19 12:35
以前对于which修饰用法很模糊，Ron大神分析的很清楚，终于让我弄清了which的修饰用法。 感谢你的分享和解 ...