In this sentence, who are demanding greater political control, the governors or the people? And if it's the people who are demanding greater political control, does that mean they want to be governed in a more efficient way or does it mean they want their own political power? |
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It's "the people" who are demanding greater political control, and that's probably why the governors were quarreling with them. There's no ambiguity here. The word "who" can't attach to the "governors" at the beginning of the sentence, because the verb in this sentence is "quarreled". The appositive clause in the predicate has to apply to the noun in the predicate, just as the appositive in the subject has to apply to the noun in the subject. A form of this sentence that would have the governors demanding greater political control would have to read "His governors, some of them incompetent and tactless, were constantly demanding greater political control, and therefore quarreled bitterly with the people." (Note the lack of the word "who" in this sentence.) |
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To answer your first question, who goes with the people. I have to agree with ЯegDwight’s comment that there would be an and instead of who if it were to refer to governors. To answer your second question, “[. . .] the people [. . .] were constantly demanding greater political control” would leave the reader to believe that the people wanted more control in the political aspect. (I’d like to note, that yes, I did edit the second half of the sentence, but it was to make the understanding a bit more clear.) |
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