Gregg,

Probably at the very moment that you were writing your last post, I was
doing an item analysis of Christensen's use of the word "which" without a
comma to introduce an adjective clause, vs. his use of "that" with a comma,
in the entire text of Notes Toward A New Rhetoric. There were no cases of
the latter, but eight of the former, including this wonderful double pairing
when he was quoting another respected author and critic:

Several years ago, in "A Note on the Writer's Craft" (Twentieth Century
English, New York, 1946), John Erskine discussed a "principle" which he said
is known to every writer but which he had never seen discussed in print. It
illustrates, he says incidentally, "the startling gulf between the grammar
which is taught and learned and the grammar which is used."

A few years back, when I was doing my revision of The Christensen Rhetoric
Program, I remember suggesting that a writer should use "which" when the
clause is nonessential, but either "which" or "that" may be used when the
clause is essential. That led to an hour-long argument with my editor, who
advocated the exclusive use of "that" for restrictive clauses. I lost, I had
to rewrite it, and I have been fuming ever since. But I have also been on
this "which hunt" ever since, and I am wondering whether the choice a writer
makes between "which" and "that" has anything to do with the sound of the
words that surround the event. While I am not yet ready to publish my
findings, it seems that when the pronoun is surrounded by words with soft
"a" sounds or "t" sounds, the frequency of the choice of "which" goes up.
Just a theory.

Christensen would have loved computers. He did it the old-fashioned way,
literally by counting coffee beans.

Don



On Feb 18, 2008 3:52 PM, Gregg Heacock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Brad, Thanks for your diligence.  In this regard, you are in the grand
> tradition of Francis Christensen.  I will check it out.
> Best regards,
> Gregg
>
> On Feb 18, 2008, at 11:34 AM, Brad Johnston wrote:
>
> *Dear Grammarians,*
> **
> *In the first twenty-one pages of "The Audacity of Hope", by Barack Obama,
> c.2006, the word "had" appears 68 times.*
> **
> *Of the total, 16 are used correctly as the past tense of the verb "to
> have" (11), or in the past perfect (2), or in the subjunctive (2). *
> ****
> *Of the 52 in error, 5 use "had been"' instead of "was" or "were", 13
> insert the word 'had' in front of the wrong form of an irregular verb, and
> 34 insert the word "had" in front of a past tense verb.*
> **
> *Before you decide to kill the messenger, let me remind you that they are
> all there in black and white. They await the scrutiny of doubters.  *
> **
> *When you are satisfied, tell me ( a ) what difference does it make? and (
> b ), assuming you think it makes a difference, what can be done about it?
> *
> **
> *The misuse of the past perfect is widespread. Obama's error rate of 76%
> puts him about the middle of the range in the 50 texts I have examined,
> where error rates run from 48% (John Coetzee) to 100 % (Henry Kissinger,
> believe it or not).*
> **
> *You are welcome to see the numbers on some of the others. It was tedious
> to collect but is not particularly tedious to look at and consider. *
> **
> *.brad.18feb08.*
>
> ------------------------------
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-- 
Don Stewart
Write for College
______________________
Keeper of the memory and method
of Dr. Francis Christensen

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