A republic was any form of government in which sovereignty resided in the people, not in a separate ruling class or a king, and where the people were citizens and not merely subjects.



句中前半句定語從句“in which sovereignty resided in the people”的先行詞是form還是government，假如還原成單獨的句子是哪種？有兩個介詞in？

A republic was any form of government in which sovereignty resided in the people, not in a separate ruling class or a king, and where the people were citizens and not merely subjects.

1. form of government：政體（政治體制），不要分隔開來。所以，which 指 form of government。

2. 本句，含有兩個定語從句： in which...和 where...，它們是并列的，由 and 連接，用途一樣，都是修飾 form of government 的。

3. 在第一個定語從句中，resided in （存在于；是）， not in 是 not resided in 的省略，意思是“沒有于；不是”。

至此，句子結構和意思，應該沒問題了。



這是給 republic 下概念。我把句子直譯出來：

【直譯】共和國是一種政體，在此政體下（in which），主權是人民，而不是單獨的統治階級或國王；在此政體下（where），人民是公民而不止是臣民。