Which + Noun : is a noun following after which?

Question

Recently I have been learning SAT sentence correction, there is one sentence I don't quite understand. Here ...
Begining in 1285, various commissions were set up in London to address the problem of coal smoke, which complainants said had "infected and corrupted" the air.
My question is - which complainants - I feel like it should have "that complainants" instead of "which + complainants". Is "which" normally used like "that"?

Acccumulation · Answer

"which complainants said had "infected and corrupted" the air" is a nonrestrictive clause that modifies "the problem of coal smoke". "Which" is appropriate for a nonrestrictive clause: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/that_vs_which.html . Using "that" would imply that it's a restrictive clause, which in turn implies that there are several problems of coal smoke, and you are specifying that you are talking about the one that people have complained about.

Answered by Acccumulation on May 24, 2021

Which + Noun : is a noun following after which?

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