lunarpower wrote:

mmslf75 wrote:Thanks, ron

you COULD conceivably use a "which" modifier, to modify the pension liabilities themselves. but, if you're going to do that, you don't want the present tense; you want one of the following 2 tenses:
...to confront the growing pension liabilities, which are leading local politicians to...
...to confront the growing pension liabilities, which have led local politicians to...
the first of these creates a parallel structure with "are beginning". you would want this parallel structure if you were implying that local politicians are just starting to do this.
the second of these implies that local politicians have already taken substantive action.

Ron

Could you please explain why "which and when" in the following examples are not referring to nearest noun before comma i.e. "19th century"?

"King of 19th century, which is known for its crime rate....."

"King of 19th century, when lot of crime were committed, was a landmark year."

"Year 1821 of 19th century, when lot of crime were committed, was a landmark year."

lunarpower wrote:

CaptainM wrote:Ron

Could you please explain why "which and when" in the following examples are not referring to nearest noun before comma i.e. "19th century"?

"King of 19th century, which is known for its crime rate....."

"King of 19th century, when lot of crime were committed, was a landmark year."

"Year 1821 of 19th century, when lot of crime were committed, was a landmark year."

well, i'm not sure who wrote these, but they're bad examples -- the first two don't make any sense at all (i suspect that "king" isn't actually supposed to be there, and that these were copied incorrectly from somewhere else), and the third is redundant (if you say "the year 1821", then "of the 19th century" shouldn't be there).
since each of these examples is either nonsensical or redundant, then, it's not a good idea to discuss them for the sake of coming to any conclusions about modifiers, because modifiers are meaning-based (not just grammar-based).

still, though, the answer to the question that you're trying to ask is probably found in this link:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/correct-use- ... tml#197164
try that and see if your question is answered there.