which

[navi]

Are these sentences correct:

1) He was behaving very strangely, from which I concluded that he had taken drugs.

2) She suddenly became calm, for which I could find no explanation.


Gratefully,
Navi

[Erik_Kowal]

Yes.

What made you wonder about their correctness?

[navi]

Thank you very much, Eric,

I don't know. Sometimes, for some reason a correct sentence sounds odd to me. In this case, '2' sounded odd. I thought that it should be correct, but it sounded strange. Hence, the question. Funnily enough, '1' didn't sound strange, and they have basically the same structure.

Respectfully,
Navi

[Erik_Kowal]

Thank you very much, Erik,

I don't know. Sometimes, for some reason a correct sentence sounds odd to me. In this case, '2' sounded odd. I thought that it should be correct, but it sounded strange. Hence, the question. Funnily enough, '1' didn't sound strange, and they have basically the same structure.

Respectfully,
Navi

The "from which" in 1) gives you no choice regarding the word order:

1) He was behaving very strangely, from which I concluded that he had taken drugs.

^*1a) He was behaving very strangely, which I concluded that he had taken drugs from.

With 2), on the other hand, "for which" gives you the option of placing the "for" at the end of the sentence, which also happens to correspond to the more idiomatic, less formal word order. So I think that's the reason for the difference in feel.

2a) She suddenly became calm, for which I could find no explanation for.

[navi]

Thank you very much, Eric,

You are right! I hadn't thought of that, but the other version doesn't seem strange to me. I think that's the one I'd use.

Brilliant analysis!