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English 1b3 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Relative Clause and the antecedent of who

a. I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with a friend of mine from college. He moved to Canada to live a week or so ago.

b. I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with a friend of mine from college, who moved to Canada to live a week or so ago.

Is b acceptable even though '... who moved...' is not adjacent to 'friend'?

Could you argue that '...who moved...' modifies 'a friend of mine', not just 'a friend'?

Thanks
  

Top answer

English 1b3 b. I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with a friend of mine from college, who moved to Canada to live a week or so ago. ' seems to be modifying "college", and it isn't quite right.

— Karansardana

  • English 1b3 b.
  • I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with a friend of mine from college, who moved to Canada to live a week or so ago.
  • ' seems to be modifying "college", and it isn't quite right.
  • If I were to paraphrase this, I would say I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with my college friend, who moved to Canda a week or so ago.
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2 Answers
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English 1b3b. I just got home from a ski holiday, this time with a friend of mine from college, who moved to Canada to live a week or so ago.
If we strictly follow the rules, I don't think b is acceptable as 'who..' seems to be modifying "college", and it isn't quite right.

If I were to paraphrase this, I would say I just got home from a ski ho
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English 1b3Is b acceptable
Both are fine if you delete to live and the comma before who, assuming you have more than one college buddy.
English 1b3Could you argue that '...who moved...' modifies 'a friend of mine', not just 'a friend'?
The pronoun who refers to (not modifies) a friend of mine from col
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