[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
bug#20011: etc/PROBLEMS: updates, wording, typos
From: |
Ivan Shmakov |
Subject: |
bug#20011: etc/PROBLEMS: updates, wording, typos |
Date: |
Sat, 04 Apr 2015 20:25:07 +0000 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) |
>>>>> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
>>>>> Ivan Shmakov wrote:
>> AIUI, there's nothing wrong with using “which” there, either.
> I disagree. Eg
> http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/01/that-versus-which.html
There, it documents the in-house style. As for the English at
large, Wikipedia quotes [1] Merriam-Webster’s (1995) thus:
[…] the facts of usage are quite simple. Virginia McDavid’s 1977
study shows that about 75 percent of the instances of /which/ in
edited prose introduce restrictive clauses; about 25 percent
nonrestrictive ones. We conclude that at the end of the 20th
century, the usage of /which/ and /that/ — at least in prose — has
settled down. You can use either /which/ or /that/ to introduce a
restrictive clause — the grounds for your choice should be stylistic
— and /which/ to introduce a nonrestrictive clause.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_relative_clauses
--
FSF associate member #7257 http://boycottsystemd.org/ … 3013 B6A0 230E 334A