A dog which barked
Reading the latest pile of dung from Mann Coulter, I stumbled on this:One Web site defending Bush's choice of a graduate from an undistinguished law school complains that Miers' critics "are playing the Democrats' game," claiming that the "GOP is not the party which idolizes Ivy League acceptability as the criterion of intellectual and mental fitness." (In the sort of error that results from trying to sound "Ivy League" rather than being clear, that sentence uses the grammatically incorrect "which" instead of "that." Web sites defending the academically mediocre would be a lot more convincing without all the grammatical errors.)
You what? When will the semiliterate learn? It is a rule -- nay, a law -- of language that anyone who is not of the highest rank in matters grammatical will err when being snide about someone else's English.
Coulter's mistake? "That" and "which" remain interchangeable when it comes to restrictive clauses. One can equally write "The dog that barked was black" and "the dog which barked was black". One may not write "The dog, that barked, was black". Coulter has made the common mistake of thinking one's personal preference is actually the law. Nothing new for her in that, of course.
posted by Dr Zen @ 2:11 pm
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