Re: facts v. history; which and that

Steve Jamar <sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu> wrote:
>
> There is never a loss of meaning by incorrect usage of that or which.

I beg to differ. Consider:

"The room had one window that overlooked the parking lot."

   versus

"The room had one window, which overlooked the parking lot."

The first sentence means that the room may have had several windows and one of them overlooked the parking lot. The second sentence means that the room had only one window, and it overlooked the parking lot. If we accept the interchangeability of "which" and "that", then we finally do not know what either sentence means for sure. I call that a loss of meaning---as well as an impoverishment of our once-rich language.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Mon Apr 27 1998 - 18:23:57 GMT