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Below is an example:

Suppose a coin is either unbiased or biased, in which case the chance of a "head" is unknown and is given a uniform prior distribution.

In this sentence, I can know from my common sense that "in which case the chance of a "head" is unknown and is given a uniform prior distribution" is used to describe "biased", because a chance of "head" is known for an unbiased coin (50%).

If I meet another sentence, how should I judge which component the "in which" clause describe? Does it describe the "nearest" word? But why does it not describe the whole words (e.g., "either unbiased or biased" in this example)?

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    To me, the "in which case ..." is describing the whole phrase - the situation that you do not know the probability of the outcomes of a coin toss. I do not see it as describing specifically biased. Just because a coin is biased does not mean that it's chances of a "head" is unknown.
    – katatahito
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 1:11
  • You're right that the sentence fails to make clear what "in which case" refers to.Also, the "suppose" part of the sentence seems silly, as a coin is surely either unbiased or biased. I would guess that the author meant "If we have no information about the possible bias of a coin, then we assume a uniform prior distribution for the chance of a 'head'."
    – Andreas Blass
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 1:49
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    It clearly refers to the complement clause of Suppose:, specifically denoting the case in which the coin is known to be either biased or not biased, and those are the only two choices, and it is not known which choice is correct. In that case -- the case of the coin being either one or the other -- the conclusion follows. And that is the which.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 2:21
  • @KannE Thanks, this is the content. I will remember this tip next time.
    – T X
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 8:03

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In a comment, John Lawler wrote:

It clearly refers to the complement clause of Suppose:, specifically denoting the case in which the coin is known to be either biased or not biased, and those are the only two choices, and it is not known which choice is correct. In that case -- the case of the coin being either one or the other -- the conclusion follows. And that is the which.

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