Sentence Correction

Received a PM asking me to reply.

Goel, yes, the chaise lounge is being brought back. The chaise lounge is mentioned as an example of the "bygone styles" that are being brought back. So the styles are being brought back in general, and examples of the styles being brought back are the chaise lounge, etc.

We're not supposed to address OG questions online anymore (that's why the OG threads are locked on our forums), but the poster who PM'ed me specifically asked about how to tell what noun (or noun phrase) the "that" modifier refers to, so I'll address that without really diving specifically into the OG problem much (since I'm not supposed to do that!).

Most of the time, the "that" modifier is going to refer to the noun immediately preceding the "that." There are exceptions, though, most typically when the noun immediately preceding is part of some short descriptive phrase (most often a prepositional phrase) that describes a main noun. In those cases, the "that" modifier can refer to the main noun.

She possessed an aura of invincibility that impressed those around her.

"that impressed..." is modifying "aura," not "invincibility." The "of invincibility" modifier provides a necessary description of the word "aura" - otherwise, we wouldn't quite know what we were talking about. The "of invincibility" modifier is subordinate to and a necessary descriptor of "aura," so "aura" is the main noun here.

Similarly, let's examine "a market for impossibly cute toys that is bringing back the Beanie Baby and Elmo."

What is bringing back the Beanie Baby and Elmo? The fact that there's a market for this stuff. What about "the impossibly cute toys"? That's just a necessary descriptor for the market: it's not just any market, it's an "impossibly-cute-toy market."

Further, it would be illogical to say that "the impossibly cute toys" are bringing back the Beanie Baby and Elmo. These are merely examples of the impossibly cute toys, so we'd basically be saying that the impossibly cute toys are bringing back the impossibly cute toys. Illogical.

The lesson here: it is actually okay for "that" (or "which" or the like) to refer to a main noun that is shortly before the comma but not immediately before the comma, as long as the stuff between the main noun and the comma = a subordinate, necessary descriptor.

In the other one (following that link), "in the country" is placed between then noun and the "which" in choice B, but it is pulled in front in choice E (country's... market).

Given a choice between the two, we prefer NOT to have that descriptor cutting between the noun and the modifier. E gives us a better option because it avoids doing that.

Most of the time, when you do see some necessary descriptor cutting between the noun and the modifier in a correct answer, it wouldn't really make sense to place the description elsewhere in the sentence.

tiebreak. Whenever I write that something is "preferred" - that's automatically a tiebreak. Deal with other stuff first and only deal with the "preference" if you have to.

When it's simply right vs. wrong, I'll say so!

you can say "to X from Y" or "from X to Y." The latter construction is more common, but the former one isn't wrong. So there's no idiom problem in either.

So, E wins over B, because E says the same thing in the modifier area without opening up some uncertainty by placing the prepositional phrase "in the country" between market and the which modifier. Basically, E is cleaner.

Most of the time, a "which" modifier should refer to the immediately preceding noun (the one right before the comma).

There is an exception when you have:

<main noun> <essential defining modifier>, <which modifier>

That essential modifier could be an appositive (The girl named Sue, who had brown hair...)
or it could be a prepositional phrase (Among the several boxes of construction items, the box of nails, which was sitting on the shelf...)

The key is that the intervening modifier should be something that is essential to the basic meaning / understanding of the main noun. If I just say "the box, which was sitting on the shelf..." - well, what am I talking about? If there's only one box, then maybe we don't have to say what's in it, but what if there are multiple boxes? Which box am I talking about? "The box of nails"? Oh, okay, now I know which box - that's an essential modifier.

So that's really the key idea - an essential modifier that defines the main noun in some necessary way.