Who, That:It’s All Relative

…A Comedy in IV Acts

Starring…Main CastAmy CraigAllen HarrellMichael JohnsonEmmie Kinard

Supporting CastPaul BriansR.W. BurchfieldMark DaviesBarbara FennellEdward C. GoodRobert GuisepiPatrick HartwellJack LynchLindley MurrayRoswell Chamberlain SmithIngrid Tieken-Boon van OstadeBruce Tuckman

Plot SummaryFour wily academics embark on a journey for the Holy Grail of grammar, Truth. Along their adventure, absurdity ensues; though with a Chuck-Norris-worthy effort, the four heroes find something greater than what they had originally sought…

PROLOGUEWhat do two copy editors, one TESOL instructor, and one

undergraduate English major have in common? – A thorough understanding, perhaps a hang up,

on the “rules” of English grammar. – In accordance with Bruce Tuckman’s five

inevitable phases of group work, we had our “storming” phase- talking about various grammar pet peeves

– Which brought us to our “norming” phase- as a result of Amy’s annoyance with the idiom “the one THAT got away” and how she thought it should be “the one WHO got away.”

PROLOGUE• The heroes (us, of course,) with every good

intention, set out to prove that this idiom was breaking the prescriptive “rule”: who is for people and that is for objects.

• With a viable topic and an ostensible governing “rule,” we decided to investigate this issue.

Unfortunately, 2 copy editors, one TESOL instructor, and one undergraduate English major had something else in common…..

Act I: Survey of LiteratureEnter:Jack Lynch, author of Guide to Grammar and StyleC. Edward Good, author of Who’s (…Oops!) Whose Grammar Book Is This, Anyway?

Lynch says: “[y]ou should usually use who (and its related forms, whose and whom) only to refer to people,

with that or which only for non human things.”

Good, in concurrence with Lynch says: “We use who-whom-whose to refer to humans and that-which to refer to

inanimate objects and abstractions.”

At this point in the story, having referenced Lynch and Good, the heroes believe they are on the right track….

The Plot Thickens…As our survey of literature continued, we ran into a

few authors who were not of the same opinion as Lynch and Good.

• One such author came to us from long, long ago: Lindley Murray, writer of An English Grammar (1808) said:

“Who is applied to persons, which to animals and inanimate things…” and “That, as a relative, is often

used to prevent too frequent repetition of who and which.”

…our journey only got tougher when we ran into Paul BriansWho, in his list of “non-errors,” not only says: “there are many instances in

which the most conservative usage is to refer to a person using “that”:“All the politicians that were at the party…” but he further intimates,

“An aversion to “that” referring to human beings as somehow diminishingtheir humanity may be praiseworthily sensitive, but it cannot claim

the authority of tradition.”

• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage supports Brians’ opinion, saying, “that was the first relative pronoun, existing at least since Middle English. Which came next, followed by who(m); both already existed in the language, but only began to be used as relative pronouns in the 14th

and 15th centuries”.

Dictionary Entries The Oxford English Dictionary:that, pron.2

The general relative pronoun, referring to any antecedent, and used without inflexion irrespective of gender, number, and case.

1. a. Introducing a clause defining or restricting the antecedent, and thus completing its sense. (The ordinary use: referring to persons or things. Sometimes replaceable by who (of persons) or which (of things), but properly only in cases where no ambiguity results.

American Heritage Dictionary states: It is entirely acceptable to write either “the man that wanted to talk to you,” or “the man who wanted to talk to you.”

Act II: Research Questions• As our bumpy journey on the road of literature came to an

end it became clear that there was much more agreement against than support for the prescriptive rule we had imagined at the start.

• In response we re-framed our broken picture with the help of Patrick Hartwell and his 5 meanings of grammar

• Influenced by Hartwell, we broadly distinguished three levels of rules within English grammar: 1) “Rules” (Rs) 2) Accepted “Rules” (ARs) and 3) Suggested “Rules” (SRs)

Act II: Research Questions• With this new framework, we knew that who and that

failed to be an R, but should it be an AR, a “Rule” we would expect the majority of educated individuals to follow or an SR, a simple stylistic choice espoused as a rule?

• With this in mind, we posed two questions:

1. Do students (members of the academy) show a pattern of usage in regards to either AR or SR for who and that?

2. What is the current trend between who and that when looking at corpora data?

Act III Part I: Methodology

Question # 1: Do students (members of the academy) show a pattern of usage in regards to either AR or SR for who and that?

• To examine this, we administered surveys to 93 students (77 Native English speakers and 16 Non-native)

Survey The survey consisted of 10 questions that tested different aspects/conditions

of the usage of who and that, such as abstraction, identity, literary use, idiomatic expression, and testing against the “rule.”

• The survey also had a question (#11) that acted as our control question and a final question to determine if the participant was a native speaker of English.

• Students could select either a) who or b) that for each question, which, based on the source we drew it from, had an expected (though not necessarily “correct”) answer.

• We collected 93 surveys across 4 sections of EN 101 and 1 section of EN 131, which breaks down to 76 of our participants being native speakers and 16 being non-native speakers of English.

Survey• Our first question came straight from

L&S: The workers _ were on strike made a deal

with their company.– A. 60 ~65%– B. 33 ~35%

Survey• Question two came from The Apprenticeship

of Duddy Kravitz, 1959 “…Take while I’m in an offering mood. I’m

not the Red Cross _ you can call at any emergency.” -Richler– A. 44 ~47%– B. 49 ~ 53%

Survey• The third question also came from a

work of literature. However, this work by Shakespeare is much older than the previous one, but that is once again the relative pronoun used.“I’ll make a ghost of him _ lets me.”

Shakespeare, Hamlet– A. 71~ 76%– B. 22 ~ 24%

Survey• Our fourth question is the idiomatic

expression that started it all….She is the one _ got away.– A. 51~55%– B. 42~ 45%

Survey• Question five is another question that

came from our L&S bookHe is a guy _ always answers e-mail.– A. 66 ~ 71%– B. 27 ~ 29%

Survey• Question six also came from our L&S

bookIn my English class, we are reading authors

_ nobody’s ever read.– A. 25 ~ 27%– B. 68 ~ 73%

Survey• Question seven was invented by the

heroes to test identification I’m a person _ loves babies.

– A. 60 ~ 65%– B. 33 ~ 35%

Survey• Question eight, similar to question

seven, was also invented to test identificationI don’t trust people _ hate babies.– A. 40 ~ 43%– B. 53 ~ 57%

Survey• The ninth question was also from our

L&S bookThe man _ he caught is in jail.

– A. 38 ~ 41%– B. 55 ~ 59%

Survey• Question ten, similar to question nine,

also came from our L&S bookThe police officer _ caught the thief received

a commendation.

– A. 49 ~ 55%– B. 40 ~ 45%

What does this tell us?• Not finding a pattern in the students’ responses

may suggest that students are not under the assumption that there is a “rule” (an AR) that distinguishes who and that.

This could mean that who and that are treated in students’ minds as a choice in style ….or

this could mean that if there is a rule, it is the minority, not the majority, who chose to follow it.

Act III Part II: Methodology

Question # 2: What is the current trend between who and that when looking at corpora data?

• we used the actual questions from our survey and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).

Survey In COCA• Abstraction & Identity

# Question StudentResponses

% COCAtokens

1. Who The workers _ were on strike made a deal with their company.

60 65 161That 33 35 21

7. Who I’m a person _ loves babies. 60 65 2806That 33 35 395

8. Who I don’t trust people _ hate babies.

40 43 72857That 53 57 14285

Survey In COCA• Idiomatic Expression

# Question StudentResponses

% COCAtokens

4. Who She is the one _ got away

51 55% 12

That 42 45% 48

Survey In COCA• Testing Against a Rule# Question Student

Responses % COCA

tokens5. Who He is a guy _ always

answers e-mail. 66 71% 3425That 27 29% 522

6. Who In my English class, we are reading authors _ nobody’s ever read.

25 27% 295That 68 73% 58

An Interlude: Post Facto Interest

• After we had collected and analyzed the data for our first 2 hypotheses, we returned to something that piqued our interest in the survey of literature: the historical relationship between who and that.

Google Ngram of Historical Relationship

“Person who” vs. “Person that”

So What?This MAY relate to the boom in education starting

with Puritan settlers in colonial America• “Old Deluder Satan Act”

• Jonathan Swift’s proposal to Parliament in 1712

With education becoming more popular and accessible, there was a better market for grammar books which inspired a great increase in grammar

writing (mostly prescriptively based) by several authors, such as, Lowth, Murray, and Johnson.

Act IV: Conclusion

• It is not possible to conclusively declare that there ever existed a prescriptive rule

• Students do not seem to choose between who or that with any conviction, but the corpora data did show more support for one or the other

• the corpus data support that there is an idea out there that a R or AR exists, otherwise the results would have yielded a more even split between the uses of who and that.

• This study then, more or less, acts as a (dis)confirmatory study.

Appendix A1. The workers _ were on strike made a deal with their company. (L&S)

A. 60 – 65% / B. 33 – 35%

2. “…Take while I’m in an offering mood. I’m not the Red Cross _ you can call at any

emergency.” –Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, 1959 (literature)

A. 44 – 47% / B. 49 – 53%

3. “I’ll make a ghost of him _ lets me.” –Shakespeare, Hamlet (literature)

A. 71 – 76% / B. 22 – 24%

4. She is the one _ got away. (idiomatic expression)

A. 51 – 55% / B. 42 – 45%

5. He is a guy _ always answers e-mail. (L&S)

A. 66 – 71% / B. 27 – 29%

6. In my English class, we are reading authors _ nobody’s ever read. (L&S)

A. 25 – 27% / B. 68 – 73%

7. I’m a person _ loves babies. (a test to gauge identification)

A. 60 – 65% / B. 33 – 35%

8. I don’t trust people _ hate babies. (a test to gauge identification)

A. 40 – 43% / B. 53 – 57%

9. The man _ he caught is in jail. (L&S)

A. 38 – 41% / B. 55 – 59%

10. The police officer _ caught the thief received a commendation. (L&S)

A. 49 – 55% / B. 40 – 45%

11. The book ___ is on the table is a textbook. (control question)

A. 5 – 6% / B. 84 – 94%

12. Are you a native speaker of English?

A. 77 – 83% / B. 16 – 17%