GNU bug report logs - #20011
etc/PROBLEMS: updates, wording, typos

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Message #23 received at 20011 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ivan Shmakov <ivan <at> siamics.net>
To: 20011 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#20011: etc/PROBLEMS: updates, wording, typos 
Date: Sat, 04 Apr 2015 20:25:07 +0000

>>>>> Glenn Morris <rgm <at> 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

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