syntactic analysis - Can "which" and its antecedent be used together in a sentence for reading clarity?


Unfortunately I could not find an authentic example of the rare construct I have in mind, but I am just as sure as I am typing this question that I have read so many sentences from older prose where the relative pronoun "which" and the noun it refers to are both there. In this case, it sounded almost as though "which" were used as "such."


Which + its antecedent.


The following example is mine, not taken from any authentic author; but it attempts accurately to emulate many sentences I have read:



Yet a certain problem still persists in this society, which problem has been handed down from one generation to another.



Could it be that a writer is allowed to do so to avoid the syntactic ambiguity of whether "which" refers back to "society" or "problem"? Now of course the rest of the sentence may clarify for the reader what the antecedent for "which" is (without having to mention it); meaning that ". . . handed down from generation to another" gives the impression that the antecedent is indeed "problem." But still, could the combination of "which" followed by its antecedent "problem" be used to give the reader a more fluid and smooth reading experience?




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