which

[idiotmike]

Dear teachers,

I came across an article on the economist magazine about skype.

"Although all of Skype’s data are encrypted, the chunks that encode silence are smaller than those which encode speech, which allows them to be detected reliably."

Could you help me understand the above grammar, what does the second "which" ( which allows them to be detected reliably) describe? what is to be detected reliably? " those which encode speech" or "Skype’s data"? thank you.

[probus]

The second which refers to the whole of the sentence that precedes it. The chunks that encode silence can be reliably detected because of the fact that they are smaller than those that encode speech.

[idiotmike]

Thank you. If I want to refer to : "encode speech", can I use it this way "which is "... than those which encode speech, which is a complicated process"? Thank you.

[Tdol]

You could.