that which i cannot explain.
anne fadiman made a comment about all of her students knowing the difference between that and which. though beth and i played it cool, we weren't sure about that rule. however, i knew i had just "learned" it, so here is my best approximation of it (after looking it up in my notes):
that is part of a restrictive clause and limits the meaning to a single object. ie - i want the kind of car that henry has.
which creates the non-restrictive clause, adding information to an already identified object. ie- my car, which is dusty, needs to be washed. which is always set off by commas.
****
so this is my interpretation of it. i'm wondering if she taught this in siri's course, or if it took a few rounds of students to get frustrated enough to drill it into their heads. please (anyone) correct or add if needed.
that is part of a restrictive clause and limits the meaning to a single object. ie - i want the kind of car that henry has.
which creates the non-restrictive clause, adding information to an already identified object. ie- my car, which is dusty, needs to be washed. which is always set off by commas.
****
so this is my interpretation of it. i'm wondering if she taught this in siri's course, or if it took a few rounds of students to get frustrated enough to drill it into their heads. please (anyone) correct or add if needed.
posted by sarah at 9/29/2005
4 Comments:
hmm...no, i don't remember her going over any grammar. i'm sure we at smith were far smarter than those stupid yalies, though, so she didn't need to :) ha!
yeah! she was immediately like, "oh, I loved teaching at smith," as though she needed to explain to us obvious smithies (ha!) that she was not a traitor, that the winds of life had blown her new haven way. No need to explain it to me, when you have a loft in soho to take the train home to. that loft. or which loft?
did you tell her how much i loved her class?
I feel like I'm high on crack cocaine right now. Jesus.
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