関係詞thatとwhichに関しての一考察 : 主格用法における相違点を求めて

Abstract

Although a number of things have been said about the relatives that and which, yet there seem to be some questionable points left to be answered. So some investigations and considerations are made of all the specimens of the two relatives IN SUBJECTIVE CASE, from ten books (chiefly American novels) published after 1940. The results are as follows. Functionally and in psychological effects, that is more conjunctional than pronominal and connects the antecedent with the clause introduced by it, more closely than which. The content of the clause seems to be mostly ordinary and plain enough. As which is stronger both phonetically and semantically, the clause introduced by it seems to attract much greater attention than thai-clause. So, when the relative clause deals with what the writer thinks is important or fairly new, which is more effective than that. Hence more which-clauses in scholastic writings. Statistically, in restrictive use, that is usually in higher frequency and more general use than which.