"I. R. Khan" <ir_khan@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> I guess it depends on the context. You might say "turn South on I-280,
>> then follow the signs to the Winchester Mystery House." I think when
>> talking ABOUT the signs, they're just "signs", but when refering to the
>> signs,
>> they're "roadsigns". So you might say "my, the roadsigns around here sure
>> are confusing", but "I didn't have any trouble following the signs to
>> get to your house."
>
>Thanks again. I want to write something like this:
>
>"In a graphics application, the roadsigns THAT offer directions are
>generally represented by an image file. To reduce the size of data, we will
>represent these signs by a small text file and a single color."
>
>Is the usage of THAT correct, or should it be THOSE or WHICH?
I would say that "offer directions" is a restrictive clause and requires
"that", not "which". See
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictive_clause>.
"Those" would be OK; it has a slightly different meaning to me, but I'm
not sure I can explain what the difference is.
Jack Hamilton
jfh@acm.org
-----
I can maintain neither respect nor affection for a
Government which has been moving from wrong to wrong
in order to defend its immorality.
Mohandas Gandhi
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