"Which qualifies, that restricts", they say. And in the next sentence they deny that already! "Which" is more ambiguous, etc. Typical handwaving bullshit encountered in grammar books.
Not to mention that the words "to qualify" and "to restrict" are not independent; their meanings have a significant intersection.
At some point I started to study natural language processing. The first thing I learned was that I should burn all grammar books...
As for "which/that", well, you can choose what you do, as long as it is consistent. My rules:
- always use a comma before "which"
- use "that" to say "this one of many objects has property X" (I remembered the presence of the soldier that made me upset - it is not the rain, not the accident, but the presence the soldier that made me upset, - we select the object that has property X)
- use "which" to say "one or all of many objects have property X, but we don't select any single one" (it is the presence of the soldier, which is required in this situation, that made me upset - the presence is always required, we do not select the presence on the criterion of being required; but we select the presence on the criterion of making me upset)
- "which" with a comma before it could refer to any part of the sentence before it. "which" without a comma should be replaced by "that" without a comma. "that" only refers to the immediately preceding noun phrase.
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At some point I started to study natural language processing. The first thing I learned was that I should burn all grammar books...
As for "which/that", well, you can choose what you do, as long as it is consistent. My rules:
- always use a comma before "which"
- use "that" to say "this one of many objects has property X" (I remembered the presence of the soldier that made me upset - it is not the rain, not the accident, but the presence the soldier that made me upset, - we select the object that has property X)
- use "which" to say "one or all of many objects have property X, but we don't select any single one" (it is the presence of the soldier, which is required in this situation, that made me upset - the presence is always required, we do not select the presence on the criterion of being required; but we select the presence on the criterion of making me upset)
- "which" with a comma before it could refer to any part of the sentence before it. "which" without a comma should be replaced by "that" without a comma. "that" only refers to the immediately preceding noun phrase.