"who" vs. "that"

Heather Marie Kosur hmkosur at ILSTU.EDU
Sun Jul 26 15:02:29 UTC 2009


Bill,

There is a prescription for who versus that. However, as a
prescriptive rule, it is clearly not reflective of actual use. I
actually just wrote on this subject in my Hubfolio:

http://www.brighthub.com/hubfolio/heather-marie-kosur/articles/40212.aspx

Hope that answers your question!

Heather

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Heather Marie Kosur
Illinois State University
Milner Library
Processing/Conservation
Campus Box 8900
201 North School Street
Normal, Illinois 61790-8900
(309) 438-5941
hmkosur at ilstu.edu


Quoting Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      "who" vs. "that"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A current Kellogg's Special K commercial claims, "Research shows women =
> THAT eat breakfast have fewer problems with weight" (last few words may =
> not be exactly right, but you get the picture)
>
> I would have said "...women WHO...", because it just sounds more =
> natural.  Are there any "prescriptions" for this?
>
> Bill Palmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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