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Which is both a noun-pronoun and an adjective-pronoun. It may have either personal or non-personal
reference.
Which of these men is your husband?
Which colour do you prefer?
Which always implies a choice among a certain limited group of persons or things, corresponding to the
Russian который, какой из. The same meaning may be rendered by what, but what has always indefinite
reference, whereas which has definite reference. Thus the following two questions.
Which books would you like to buy?
What books would you like to buy?
differ in meaning, as the first implies that one is to choose from a given number of books and that one knows
what kind of books they are. When answering this question one may either specify the books or just point to
them saying “these”. The second sentence implies that one is to choose from an indefinite number of books,
from books in general. This sentence corresponds to the Russian Какие (какого жанра и т. п.) книги Вы
хотели бы купить? When answering this question, one simply has to specify them.
The pronouns whoever, whatever, whichever are noun-pronouns. Whoever has personal reference, whatever
has non-personal reference, whichever may have either personal or non-personal one. When used in questions
they express indignation or surprise.
Whoever could have done it?
Whichever was it?
Whatever are you trying to do?
Whatever is he talking about?
§ 226. Conjunctive pronouns
(whom, whose, what, which, whoever, whatever, whichever) are identical
with the interrogative pronouns as to their morphological, referential and syntactical characteristics. They refer
to persons and non-persons. The difference between the two subclasses lies in that the conjunctive pronouns,
along with their syntactical function in the clause, connect subordinate clauses to the main clause. They are
used to connect subject, predicative, and some adverbial clauses, or rather to indicate the subordinate status of
these clauses, as the sentence may begin with the clause they introduce.
Who did it will repent. (who opens the subject clause)
I know who did it. (who opens the object clause)
They were what you call model girls. (what opens the predicative clause)
Whatever you may do you can’t save the situation. (whatever opens the adverbial concessive clause)
Conjunctive pronouns always combine two functions - notional and structural. They are notional words
because they function as parts of the sentence within a clause and they are structural words because they serve
as connectors or markers of the subordinate clause.
The compounds whoever, whatever, and whichever introduce subject and adverbial clauses and have a
concessive meaning:
Whoever told you this may be mistaken.
Whichever you choose, I’ll help you.
Whatever may be the consequences, I insist on going on.
§ 227. Relative pronouns refer to persons and non-persons and open attributive clauses which modify
words denoting these persons or non-persons. They are who, whose, which, that. Who, like its homonyms, has
the category of case (who-whom), the others have no categories.
Relative pronouns, like conjunctive pronouns, have two functions - notional and structural: they are parts
of the sentence and connectors between the main clause and the subordinate attributive clause they are used in.