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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Investor2 who wrote (3182)	7/16/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: jbe	Respond to of 4711

Investor2, some experts argue that too much of a fuss is made over the distinction between "which" and "that." They have a point. But in the case of the sample sentence you provided, I think the distinction is important, because the meaning of the sentence changes depending on whether you use "which" or "that." Let me expand. 1.The building is not listed in any of the databases which were searched. Meaning: The building is not listed in ANY of the databases. (By the way, we searched them all.) 2. The building is not listed in any of the databases that were searched. Meaning: The building is not listed in any of the specific, particular databases searched. I was assuming that you meant to say (2), which is why I said it was correct. The basic "rule" is that "that" is limiting, or restrictive; "which" is non-limiting (i.e., provides additional but not absolutely necessary information). Here's a nice, clear summary of what that "rule" means in practice: If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class of which it is a member, use "that": "I chose the lettuce that had the fewest wilted leaves." When the general class is not being limited or defined in some way, then "which"is appropriate: "He made an iceberg Caesar salad, which didn't taste quite right." The relative pronoun "that" is restrictive, which means it tells you a necessary piece of information about its antecedent: for example, "The word processor that is used most often is WordPerfect." Here the "that" phrase answers an important question: which of the many word processors are we talking about? And the answer is the one that is used most often. "Which" is non-restrictive: it does not limit the word it refers to. An example is "Penn's ID center, which is called CUPID, has been successful so far." Here "that" is unnecessary: the "which" does not tell us which of Penn's many ID centers we're considering; it simply provides an extra piece of information about the plan we're already discussing. "Penn's ID Center" tells us all we really need to know to identify it.. There are two rules of thumb you can keep in mind. First, if the phrase needs a comma, you probably mean "which." Since "Penn's ID center" calls for a comma, we would not say "Penn's ID Center, that is called CUPID." Another way to keep them straight is to imagine by the way following every "which": "Penn's ID center, which (by the way) is called CUPID. . . ." The "which" adds a useful, but not grammatically necessary, piece of information. On the other hand,we wouldn't say "The word processor which (by the way) is used most often is WordPerfect," because the word processor on its own isn't enough information -- which word processor? andromeda.rutgers.edu