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To: Rick Julian who wrote (2343)	4/23/1999 9:16:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) of 4711

Which grammatical rule applies to the use of "which" vs. "that"? Christopher H. notes that Fowler devotes "significant" attention to this question. Well, in The King's English, he devotes 33 full pages to it (83-116, Third edition). That's significant! Fowler's basic point is that "that" is used to introduce a defining relative clause and "which" (as well as "who") is used to introduce a non-defining one. Concrete examples of the difference: The book that I read was not very good. (We had lots of books to choose from. I chose a bad one.) The book, which I happened to have read, was not very good. (Mr. X wrote a book. It was not very good. By the way, I read it myself.) Another way of putting it is that "which" clauses are inessential. You can leave the "which" clause out in sentence (2) without changing the basic meaning. It only amplifies the meaning of the sentence, without "defining" it. A still simpler rule of thumb: "that" clauses are not set off by commas; "which" clauses are. For further shades of meaning, read the 33 pages... :-) jbe

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