The Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans,

Question

The Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans,  of which members  traced their descent from a common female ancestor.

(A) of which members 
(B) with members who 
(C) members of whom 
(D) whose members 
(E) of members who

hsbinfy · Answer

u need something to modify clans before the comma,

D only does that with 'whose' which correctly refers to 'CLANS'

shashanksagar · Answer

Imo D. C and D are the only viable options that I feel are correct. But C is a bit more ndirect and wordy.. so I'll choose D.

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Abhishek009 · Answer

Their  - Symbolises there must be a plural subject/Noun...

Correct answer must be (D) , errors in the other options are marked in red..

ThangLe · Answer

Hi, i dont get why A is wrong, i thought it is like "...,members of which (clans) traced their descent from a common female ancestor". 
please advise. Thanks.

yash88 · Answer

What is wrong in C. Members of whom. here whom refers to matriarchal clans. is it wrong because it is indirect way of refering to clans, while D is a direct way.

sayantanc2k · Answer

The relative pronoun "whom" can be used for persons only - "of which" could be used in this case.

meenakshimiyer · Answer

A. “clans of which members” is a twisted virtually meaningless expression. 
B. “with members who” doesn’t give a sense that they are the members of clan. 
C. “whom” refers to a person and here we are talking about the clan. So, C is eliminated.
D. This version effectively conveys the intended meaning. Hence, D is the answer. 
E. Choice E doesn’t make any sense with respect to the context of the sentence.

anvesh004 · Answer

D correctly modifies the preceding noun "Clans".

Mrozhko · Answer

Hi y'all,
Could somebody please explain why C is incorrect? If it is because whom must be referred to people and not to the items -' clans', then by substituting it with whose would correct the error; or it is because of the placement of members after the coma instead of whom?

Cheers

kadamhari825 · Answer

Hello experts
 sayantanc2k   AndrewN   generis   AjiteshArun

can you please confirm my POE?

1. can you help us understand why option A is incorrect. my understanding was which is workinas modifier and we can replace it with clans. so
The Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans, of clans members traced their descent from a common female ancestor. i may be wrong but i do not see any problem.

2. is  with members who  wrong because of it seems like referring to earlier action  The Iroquois organized   and now is not related with clans ?
3. option C is incorrect because whom can only used for people.

Thanks

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  kadamhari825 ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubts.

1. The construction "of which members" leads to an incoherent meaning; if we were to replace "which" with "clans" as you have suggested, we would have two independent clauses linked by a comma, leading to the error of comma splice.

2. Yes; you are correct in your reasoning. This construction leads to an ambiguous meaning, implying that alongside certain members, the Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans.

3. You are correct; "whom" cannot be used to refer to "clan", as it is a non-human entity, albeit one that is comprised, in part, of humans.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  kadamhari825 ,

That's an interesting question. Let's go through a couple of points first:

1. Relative  whose  is the possessive form of both  who  and  which . This means that when  whose  points to a noun  before  it, that noun could be a living thing or an inanimate object.

2. Relative  whose   can  be replaced by an  of -construction, but such constructions are often quite awkward in comparison with  whose -constructions.

The important thing about (2) is that there are two ways of looking at that replacement. The traditional view is that we  must  insert a  the  when moving from  whose  to  of which .

3.  The club  whose members ...

4.  The club  the members of which ...

5.  The club  of which the members ...

All of these, (3), (4), and even (5), are grammatically correct. People don't normally use the structure we see in (5), but it is acceptable. But while we can't say  the club whose  the  members , is it possible to say   the club  members of which    or   the club  of which members   , without inserting a  the  before  members ? I find those constructions a little odd.

Of course, if we're not aware of the difference, we should take a call on which option is better.  Whose  is both shorter and less awkward, so that's the one we should choose.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans,

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The Iroquois organized their kinship groups into matriarchal clans,

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