"that" vs. "which"

[vanishingemily]

Okay, so I know there are certain accepted rules about when to use the word 'that' versus the word 'which'--rules with which I mostly disagree. I would like some feedback on some of the rules which I believe should be followed, versus the (outdated, imho) rules which are/tend to be followed

Comments

[acellarinaday]

I definitely overuse that, and realize it's a problem - but I don't think replacing it with which is the solution. For me, it's an issue of accepting that I don't need a word there at all - and having studied five different foreign languages, all of which use that more than English (although I guess in German it's more which), this is hard to wrap my head around.

For example: you said the movie which we saw, but really it only has to be the movie we saw. Ack! How can it be??? But it is. I often have to go through my writing and delete thats and whiches.

[vanishingemily]

Wow, so I have actually been using "which" incorrectly for all these years. I still wonder where I picked it up. I know the rule about restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses; I just have, for a long time, felt that "which" sounds better than "that" in some restrictive clauses.

I have also, as I mentioned, seen some published fiction AND scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications which/that do use "which" for restrictive clauses instead of "that". I have never seen, that I can remember, seen "that" used for a non-restrictive clause. The primary publications I'm thinking of are some publications by Isaac Asimov in the fiction category; and Leon Festinger, Irving L. Janis, and Leon Mann in the scholarly (social psychology) literature.

The texts (novels, articles, and monographs) were published between the late 1930s and the late 1980s. The authors in both categories also have published in the 1990s, but I don't recall seeing the incorrect usage in those. Perhaps it was due to style guides changing during that decade?