use "which" in a sentence

[sa_b]

Hello. Could you guide me through the following sentence?

"The position of that man, which has been achieved after some years, is changed."
I want to use the phrase of "has been achieved after some years" for "The position" and without removing "The position of that man". How can I do this? Is this sentence correct?

 

[Matthew Wai]

The position of that man, which was achieved after some years, has been changed.

 

[sa_b]

Thanks.I am confused about how to use "which". For example, "which" describes the "solution" or "problem"? How do you interpret it by default?
"The solution of the problem, which is developed by X, is very comprehensive."

 

[Matthew Wai]

I asked a similar question at https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/230473-Websites-which?p=1183627&viewfull=1#post1183627

The antecedent should be the one closest to the relative pronoun if more than one is possible; that is what I gathered from MikeNewYork's reply.

 

[Raymott]

I don't find any ambiguity here; 'which' cannot refer to 'man'. It refers to "the position of the man", that is, to "position" with an adjectival phrase.
"The height of the man, which exceeded 7 feet 7, caused people to call him Giant Jim".

Mike's reply above is about a totally different sentence. In this one, you could imagine 'which' referring to the whole of the previous phrase. That's not the case in the sentence in the link.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The OP finds the following ambiguous.

"The solution of the problem, which is developed by X, is very comprehensive."

 

[Raymott]

The answer to his follow-up question is similar, although it doesn't use 'man'. You can use 'which' to refer to the whole of the preceding clause or phrase. And you understand it by context in the case of "the solution of (or to) the problem"
If it referred to "the problem", it would read "the solution of the problem which is developed by X ..." or more likely the reduced form, "the solution of the problem developed by X ..."
That is more ambiguous, and is disambiguated by context. If it can't be, then it's a badly written sentence.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'which' cannot refer to 'man'.

'Who', 'which', and 'that' can all be used to refer to people.

They seem contradictory.

 

[Matthew Wai]

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