Neither/none of which/who

[Margee]

Dear all,

I have a question. I know that we use "which" for animate subjects and "who" for the inanimate ones in relative clauses. However, recently I've come across quite a few instances of "[sisters/brothers/people] both/neither of which" and I'd like an EXPERT opinion on whether this is acceptable. Is this kind of similar to "which of you" referring to people when choosing from a group of individuals?
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Raymott]

"I know that we use "which" for animate subjects and "who" for the inanimate ones in relative clauses"

You do?

 

[Margee]

Very helpful, thank you

Sorry, of course it's the other way round, I was just in a hurry to post it because I was eager to know a native speaker's opinion...

 

[Raymott]

It would be more appropriate to use "both of whom, etc." for people. But there might be occasions where 'which' works. It would be helpful if you could supply full sentences. Have the sentences you've seen been written by native speakers?

I can't think of a sentence in which I would use "both of which" for people.

BUT: A sentence like this works: "They have cheated and stolen from my brothers, both of which has made me angry." and:
"Most obviously, it confronts us with depictions of the deaths of two people – real people – both of which, Lui argues, are the result of systemic everyday racism as experienced by Aboriginal people." Here 'both' refers to the deaths, not the people.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...ns-for-you-20150219-13j860.html#ixzz3Wq8mId9j

 

[Margee]

Thank you. I understand that in the sentence you provided "which" refers to the acts of cheating and stealing.
Here are some examples from books that I found:

"Simon's mother has two older brothers,both of which are unmarried, two sisters, one is married with twosons and the other is older and..." (Dazzle in Ashes by Fazilla Shujaat)

"He walked around and around the brothers both of which were crying like babies." (Thunder by Thomas Warner)

I also found quite a few examples on different discussion forums like ask.fm and judged by their names they could be natives, that's why it arouse my interest. I was just wondering whether this is some kind of a new trend or something. I'm well aware of the fact that it may be just bad grammar and it also depends on the social stratum, perhaps a learned man wouldn't say something like that.

 

[Rover_KE]

Your quoted sentences should say 'both of whom'. They both have other grammatical mistakes as well.