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From: unbent@ecsvax.UUCP (Jay F. Rosenberg)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: which vs. that
Message-ID: <2363@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Nov-86 08:22:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.2363
Posted: Tue Nov 18 08:22:08 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Nov-86 22:06:27 EST
References: <16381@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <217@mind.UUCP>
Organization: UNC Chapel Hill
Lines: 25
Summary: Rules are for pedants, analphabets, ... and EDITORS

In article <217@mind.UUCP>, harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) writes:
> 
> Rules are for pedants and analphabets; stylists will always adapt them
> to the uncodifiable higher purposes literary language is really meant
> for.

	Would that it were so!  I have spent uncounted hours restoring
'which's that had dutifully been altered to 'that's by presumably-well-
educated copy editors obeisant to the restrictive/non-restrictive clause
rule.  Since 'that' does journeyman work as a demonstrative pronoun and as a
subordinating conjunction, I (a philosopher, whose professional interests
often require special attention to those grammatical roles) have developed a
style in which 'which' tends, fairly generally, to replace 'that' in its
additional relative pronoun role.  By "developed a style" I mean that I
write in such a way that the sentences not only convey what I wish them to
convey but also *sound* right.  Such considerations, however, are simply
lost on copy editors, whose horizons, as far as I can determine,
characteristically extend no further than Webster's, Fowler's, and their own
publishers' style sheets.

JAY ROSENBERG     Dept. of Philosophy     UNC     Chapel Hill, NC   27514
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