Sentence Correction

From a very early age, the poet William Blake reportedly experienced visions of God, whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood.

a. whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
b. who he claimed to have seen continuously throughout his childhood
c. he claimed, which having continued throughout his childhood to return to him
d. which, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
e. which, having claimed this, continued to return to him throughout his childhood

Can anyone please help? Expert's input much appreciated. I am interested in understanding the usage of pronouns (whom, who, which) and the technique to handle such questions. Please explain your answers.

OA: After some discussion

IMO D.
I would prefer 'which' coz' it is not modifying a person(who/whom) but "vision of God".

Just my take, would appreciate Expert's Inputs!

D, 'which' refers back to vision of God.

IMO B .. What is the OA?

Oops. I missed the meaning first time:( Correct answer has to be D then .

It really does depend on whether William Blake thought God returned to him, or whether it's the visions.

How can one find out what is the author's intent? "visions of god" seems to make sense if that is what the author is intending to say.

Can we even assume that "god returned to William Blake through out his childhood"? Seems not so possible right?

So my question is - can we make an assumption based on common sense or real world plausibility of the statement?

OA: D

Thanks

Jim@Grockit wrote:It really does depend on whether William Blake thought God returned to him, or whether it's the visions.

gmat1978 wrote:How can one find out what is the author's intent? "visions of god" seems to make sense if that is what the author is intending to say.

Can we even assume that "god returned to William Blake through out his childhood"? Seems not so possible right?

So my question is - can we make an assumption based on common sense or real world plausibility of the statement?

OA: D

Thanks

Jim@Grockit wrote:It really does depend on whether William Blake thought God returned to him, or whether it's the visions.

I would argue that if the sentence says "experienced visions of god" the only way to be grammatically correct is to assume he is referring to visions.

If the sentence said "visits from god" then the opposite would be true. Definitely William Blake could mean one or the other, but in this case we have no choice but to assume what is given to us, right?

It's tricky because in this case William Blake really did believe that he saw God -- like, looking at him directly, in his window. What is the difference between William Blake saying he saw God and saying that he saw visions of God? Seeing something is a vision; the word "vision" also has the sense of something unreal, which gives it the edge in this sentence, but the other option is not impossible if you are narrating from the perspective of "this is what William Blake believed: God returned to him several times in his youth."

Ultimately, the big difference is the pronoun. You can use "who", and if you do, it refers to God unambiguously. If you use "which", it refers to "visions" unambiguously.

gmat1978 wrote:From a very early age, the poet William Blake reportedly experienced visions of God, whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood.

a. whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
b. who he claimed to have seen continuously throughout his childhood
c. he claimed, which having continued throughout his childhood to return to him
d. which, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
e. which, having claimed this, continued to return to him throughout his childhood

Can anyone please help? Expert's input much appreciated. I am interested in understanding the usage of pronouns (whom, who, which) and the technique to handle such questions. Please explain your answers.

OA: After some discussion

Visions of God or God himself is a bit controversial. So I wont try and pick an answer. But my main aim here is to help you get an idea of pronouns.

Who / Whom: People only
That : Cannot be use for people
Whose : People or things
Where : Area, City, Country , New York etc (Cannot use for condition, situation, case etc)
When : Time, event, 1900 etc

Hope that helps!

'Which' clearly refers to 'visions' but the sentence is grammatically incorrect because relative pronoun 'which' should modify the noun immediately preceding it i.e. 'God'

help please!

From a very early age, the poet William Blake reportedly experienced visions of God, whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood.

a. whom, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
b. who he claimed to have seen continuously throughout his childhood
c. he claimed, which having continued throughout his childhood to return to him
d. which, he claimed, continued to return to him throughout his childhood
e. which, having claimed this, continued to return to him throughout his childhood

IMO: D

how we can be sure that 'which' is not referring to 'God'?

how can we sure that 'which' is not referring to 'God'?