It is the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace, which is p

hey buddy,

(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
wrong comparison between relationship and all the women. Incorrect.

(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
the sentence talks about relationship and this relationship is what the author wants to describe after the comma, however here what follows comma is wrongly modifying the Grace...and also Grace can't be the most enigmatic(puzzling) of all the women, i mean that's logically incorrect.

(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women
correct, which correctly takes relationship as antecedent.

(D) who, of all the relationships eh had with women, is probably the most enigmatic
who intends to refer to relationship but who is a wrong relative pronoun for a nonliving being...also see the incorrect usage of past perfect..
(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had ...unnecessary wordy, similar to B and D.

for the usage of which, i would suggest you to go through this recent discussion on gmatclub
doubt-on-usage-of-which-127512.html
hope it helps.
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Hello Skywalker18,

A very good attempt I must say.

This question drives home the point once more that the intended logical is of utmost importance on GMAT SC, a section that requires logical approach to master.

Here is how we would solve this question at e-GMAT.

It is the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace, which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life.

The first and foremost thing, let’s evaluate if the sentence conveys the meaning it intends to convey.

Meaning Analysis: The author of the sentence begins by mentioning about the relationship of a person named Hemingway with his mother whose name was Grace. Then the author says that Grace was probably the most enigmatic of all the women in Hemingway’s life.
But wait a minute. Did not the author begin the sentence by talking about the relationship between the son and the mother? What about that? There is nothing mentioned about the relationship.
From the context of the sentence, we understand that the sentence is meant to talk about the relationship between Hemingway and his mother Grace. But the way the latter part of the sentence is worded, it seems to describe Grace.

Error Analysis: During the meaning analysis, we understood that the sentence talks about Grace rather than about the relationship between Hemingway and Grace. We need an answer choice that corrects this error and conveys the intended meaning. So let’s see what are the errors in the original sentence that needs to be corrected.

Meaning error: The way the which modifier is worded it seems to describe Grace. But use of which to describe a person is incorrect.

However, we don’t need an option that turns which into who because per the meaning analysis, the sentence must talk about the relationship between Hemingway and Grace. Hence, we do need the modifier which.

Please note that in this sentence, which logically and grammatically refers to a slightly far-away noun* the relationship.

So we must look for an answer choice that is worded such that describes the relationship.


Answer Choice Analysis:

Choice A: which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life: Incorrect because it does not convey the intended meaning.

Choice B: who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life: Incorrect. This choice is grammatically correct but this choice talks about Grace. This is not what the original sentence wants to convey.

Choice C: which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women: Correct. This answer choice presents the intended meaning in correct grammar.

Choice D: who, of all the relationships he had with women, is probably the most enigmatic: Incorrect. Use of who to describe the relationship is incorrect.

Choice E: which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had: Incorrect. The phrase of all the women in his life seems to be the description of the relationship. This indeed leads to illogical meaning.

You can read about how noun modifiers modify a slightly far-away noun in the following link:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-modifiers-can-modify-slightly-far-away-noun-135868.html


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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People are perhaps referring to the non-underlined portion: his mother, Grace.


Actually which cannot modify a person. So, this takes Hemingway, his mother and Grace out of contention.

Hence, which modifies relationship.
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The author is trying to compare the relationship of the H with his mother as compared to his relation with all the other women in his life

B and D are out because we don't intend to modify grace but her relation with her son.

A is out because of illogical comparison

Down to C and E. Chose C over E because E seemed unnecessarily wordy.

It is the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace, which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life.
(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life - illogical - which can refer to relationship but the sentence says of all the women
(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life - seems grammatically correct but sentence seems logically incomplete
(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women - Correct
(D) who, of all the relationships he had with women, is probably the most enigmatic - same as B
(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had - wordy

GMATNinja , EMPOWERgmatRichC , sayantanc2k , daagh , mikemcgarry , other experts
Please enlighten us on the above .
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It is the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace, which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life.

The meaning is the most critical part here :
Author wants to say that : Hemingway had many relationships with other women. But the most his relationshio with his mother is the most enigmatic one...

Now if we see the options :
(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
Here the which part is modifying "grace" rather than modifying the "relationshiP"...again this is also wrong because which cannot be use to modify a person

(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
Same as A ...we need a modifier that modifies the "relationship" and complete the non-underlined part of the sentence with the intended meaning....

(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women
This part is correctly modifying the "relationship" with a relative modifier "which" - Correct Option

(D) who, of all the relationships eh had with women, is probably the most enigmatic
Here the non-undi part implies that "grace" is a relationship ...also the sentence says that grace is most enigmatic whereas we need "relationship" to be the most enigmatic..

(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had
Same as A ..which cannot modify "grace" - a person
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It is the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace, which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life.

(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women
(D) who, of all the relationships eh had with women, is probably the most enigmatic
(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had

Could Verbal Expert help? "who" versus 'which" is confusing. The noun "relationship" is slightly far away from the "which".
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As per Manhattan, "which" should touch the noun it modifies.What are the exceptions to this rule, the current question seems to be one of them. Please explain.
Thank you

Hi, which, a relative pronoun, cannot modify person/people. So, following would be incorrect:

My sister, which lives in Canada, is a teacher.

which, a relative pronoun, cannot modify sister (a person). The correct sentence is:

My sister, who lives in Canada, is a teacher.

In the sentence under consideration, which cannot modify Grace, mother, or Hemingway, because all three are persons.

Hence, the nearest word that which can modify in this sentence, is relationship, a non-person.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues with which, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Imo C

The subject of the sentence is " relationship" so we need something related to relationship in the sentence following comma.

A is wrong as the meaning is not conveyed in the sentence and use of which is incorrect
B Changes meaning
C correct
D this sentence is terrible as who refers to Mary a person and the sentence implying that Mary was out of relationships .This does not make sense
E again this is changes meaning and suggests that mary was out of relationships , use of which is wrong

In the same Manhattan guide, some exceptions to the touch rule has been mentioned. The first exception describes that a mission-critical modifier may come in between a noun and its modifier. The modifier then modifes the noun + the mission-critical modifier together. Here you may consider "of Hemingway with his mother, Grace" the mission-critical modifier. Thus the modifier "which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women" refers to "the relationship of Hemingway with his mother, Grace".

Answer: (C)

The subject of this sentence is the relationship of H with his mother. The underlined portion goes on to describe the relationship H had as "enigmatic" (mysterious).

Answer choices that illogically describe H's mother as mysterious are incorrect.
(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life
(D) who, of all the relationships he had with women, is probably the most enigmatic
(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had

E is more subtle on this.

C is quite clear that it is the relationship that is enigmatic.
(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women

Which is referring to the relationship. "Grace" is quarantined grammatically from the subject and + relative pronoun modifie by commas.

Option elimination -

(A) which is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life - The first part of the sentence talks about the relationship, and the second describes his mother. We need to talk about the relationship in the 2nd part as well. Here, which is correct to refer to the relationship but is wrongly used to compare with "all women in his life."
(B) who is probably the most enigmatic of all the women in his life. We need to talk about the relationship in the 2nd part as well.
(C) which is probably the most enigmatic of all his relationships with women - ok. Which refers to the relationship.
(D) who, of all the relationships he had with women, is probably the most enigmatic - again, it describes the mother while we need to talk about the relationship.
(E) which, of all the women in his life, is probably the most enigmatic relationship he had - which is correct to refer to the relationship but is wrongly used to compare with "all women in his life."