4. Expressions of quantity or nouns BEFORE the relative pronoun

[Eddie88]

This is my collection of cars, two of which are stolen.

This is my collection of cars, the tyres of which are very rare.
As shown above, quantifiers and nouns precede the relative pronoun.

However, the sentence below from Quirk shows that quantifiers and nouns can also follow the relative pronoun:

And and or do not allow another conjunction to precede them. This is also true for but, for, and so that (of which the latter two will be treated as subordinators).

Do you think the noun phrase follows 'of which' for style, to avoid the awkwardness as a result of the adjective?

[Marius Hancu]

The type of reference is totally different:

This is my collection of cars, the tyres of which are very rare.

Of which refers to the cars, to all the cars in the collection.

There's no selection in the above. All cars here have tyres.

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This is also true for but, for, and so that (of which the latter two will be treated as subordinators).

Here, a selection of the last two from the total of three is described.

From which will give you the right idea in an easier to understand way. You extract something, make choices, from an existing pool.

[Marius Hancu]

But in effect it is indeed a matter of style, as in Quirk they are making a selection (the latter two ...) after a list is enunciated. Of which followed by something is the easiest way to do that, to show extraction from a list.

Mind you, this can be written as well as:

This is also true for but, for, and so that (the latter two of which will be treated as subordinators).

[Eddie88]

I realise that it is a selection, but even with selections, generally the noun will precede 'of which.' For example, grammar books discussing this show the noun before the 'of which' construction.


These are my cars, both of which are stolen.


So you agree that it is just a matter of style: the noun can follow or precede the noun..