That/Which

[James Smith]

Both my Gregg stylebook and my very old college
writer's guide say in so many words that it is more
common or prefered to use a comma followed by "which"
to  introduce a nonrestrictive or nonessential clause
and "that" - with no comma - to introduce a
restrictive clause, but the two words are basically
interchangable.

The Gregg stylebook actually gives situations in which
"which" is the preferred pronoun at the beginning of a
restrictive clause, although I personally prefer
"that" in some of the examples they give and
stubbornly persist to use "that" in spite of their
permission, or urging, to use "which".

When I read, it often trips me up to find "which" at
the beginning of an essential clause, and I frequently
must reread the sentence in which such a consruction
occurs to be sure I've understood: whether a clause is
essential or nonessential can completely change the
meaning of a sentence.  To me, whether "which" or
"that" introduces a clause is a basic signal as to the
meaning or significance of what follows.


--- AAllan at AOL.COM wrote:
> There is the expected very full historical
> discussion in Merriam-Webster's
> Dictionary of English Usage, s.v. "that." Just one
> little part of it reports
> Virginia McDavid's study in _American Speech_ for
> Spring-Summer 1977, showing
> "that about 75 percent of the instances of _which_
> in edited prose introduce
> restrictive clauses; about 25 percent,
> nonrestrictive ones."
>
> I've had some editors conduct "which hunts" in my
> mss. and have been able to
> point out smugly how many restrictive "which"s
> they've missed because those
> sound so natural. - Allan Metcalf


=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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