That word "neen"

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:33 AM -0400 8/21/02, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>Yes, just yesterday I heard some one say "horse" when they meant
>"hoarse." My ears almost fell off!
>
>But seriously folks, on our distinguished colleagues' LinguistList, a
>seeker of wisdom asked what sorts of features distinguish Finns' use
>of English. In the summary, it was noted that Finns have considerable
>difficulty distinguishing the appropriate uses of "who" and "that";
>it was observed that one often hears Finnish learners of English
>using "that" when the referent is human (e.g., He's the man that I
>saw yesterday). Someone must straighten out the poor Finns before
>they destroy English! I was just in Helsinki and Joensuu and missed a
>golden opportunity to help in this worthy cause since I met a lot of
>people that could have used some help.
>
>dInIs
Maybe they meant "which" rather than "that".  Either that, or it
explains why every copyreader at every major press is Finnish.  They
invariably (in my experience) insist on "that" for all restrictive
relatives (The man/The explosion THAT I saw yesterday).  My grammar
check does the same--the Finnish conspiracy strikes again!

larry