Is this relative pronoun correct here?
"And a number of twentieth-century writers have assumed, like Hanslick, that fixed pitches are among the defining features of music. Now it is true that in most of the world’s musical cultures, pitches are not only fixed, but organized into a series of discrete steps. However, this is a generalization about music and not a definition of it, for it is easy to put forward counter-examples. Japanese shakuhachi music and the sanjo music of Korea, for instance, fluctuate constantly around the notional pitches in terms of which the music is organized."
Q1. Is the use of "which" correct here?
Q2. If correct, what does "which" refer to? "terms" or "the notional pitches" or something else?
Top answer
witty green 309 Q2. If correct, what does "which" refer to? "the notional pitches"?
- witty green 309 Q2.
- If correct, what does "which" refer to?
- "the notional pitches"?
- Yes.
- A relative pronoun refers to a noun in the matrix clause, not one internal to the dependent clause.
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witty green 309Q2. If correct, what does "which" refer to? "the notional pitches"?
Yes.
A relative pronoun refers to a noun in the matrix clause, not one internal to the dependent clause.
[ in terms of which the music is organized.] The music is organized in terms of these notional pitches.
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