On Mon, Jan 12, 2004 at 09:00:20AM -0600, C. Michael Pilato wrote:
> Ben Collins-Sussman <sussman@collab.net> writes:
>
> > On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 00:10, Mason Thomas wrote:
> >
> > > log message:
> > > * doc/book/book/ch07.xml: Fix typos and add placeholder for more
> > > configuration option descriptions.
> >
> > Wow, that's a lot of typos, thanks!
> >
> > But I also notice that this patch changes about 20 instances of "which"
> > to "that". What rule are you following? Both words sound correct to my
> > ear, like it's just a stylistic choice. Is there some grammatical
> > justification for the substitution? (Maybe some rule in the Chicago
> > Manual of Style, or something?)
>
> I've wondered about this, too. Here are some Google finds, though I
> have no clue as to the weight one should assign to them:
>
> http://teenwriting.about.com/library/weekly/aa090202a.htm
> http://www.scribe.com.au/tip-w022.html
> http://www.bu.edu/historic/styleguide.html
Others have already provided some explanation, but FYI I've been using
Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style". Other style guides should also
have similar info. Strunk & White explain: "_That_ is the defining, or
restrictive, pronoun, _which_ the nondefining, or nonrestrictive."
Basically, parenthetical expressions are nonrestrictive, while
expressions or clauses that are necessary to the meaning of the sentence
are restrictive. Sometimes it is not easy to draw the line :-).
-Mason
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Received on Tue Jan 13 06:10:50 2004