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I am interested to know if in written formal language this is reads better than that is

She goes to the library every Friday, and that is/this is her weekly respite.

Also, I often come across expressions like

That /This is (the reason) why

If I use 'this' rather than 'that' in a written text, does it raise the level of the language, or does it not make any difference?

fev
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  • Or side-step it with "She goes to the library every Friday for her weekly respite." – Weather Vane Dec 04 '20 at 16:30
  • Not really, because I am not asking for information about difference in meaning, but about difference in usage, more particularly in written language. But thank you, I am sure this link will help others. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 16:31
  • Weather Vane, thanks for the re-phrasing, but I am interested in the use of 'this/that' and not in its omission. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 16:32
  • It'll include lots of contextually irrelevant matches, but I assume comparing the two sequences and this / that* is the legal* will "more or less" reflect the actual choices made in at least "semi-formal" contexts where someone writes / says something along the lines [statement of position] - which is* the legal position. I don't see much difference in preference for this/that* when referencing immediately preceding text. – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 16:38
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    Difference in usage must be based on difference in meaning. – Yosef Baskin Dec 04 '20 at 16:40
  • These can mean different things, and when they do, you really don't want to substitute one for the other. In the cases where it doesn't make any difference, I don't believe one is favored over the other in formal English. – Peter Shor Dec 04 '20 at 17:28
  • Thank you Peter, that was a clear answer. I do understand your analogy with the French. However, you must surely be aware of the difference of use between ça and cela. The former is definitely more spoken language than the latter, and I had an intuition that this must be the case with that and this. Yet, according to the comments posted here, it doesn't seem to be the case. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 17:30
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    @YosefBaskin: "Difference in usage must be based on difference in meaning"? That's nowhere near a consistent principle in English. And as regards the specific case of using *this* or *that* to reference immediately-preceding text, I'm inclined to agree with Peter that there's probably no significant preference for one over the other. But even if there were to be a statistically significant preference, the fact that neither of us are aware of it strongly implies it's of no significance at all to the average learner. – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 17:33
  • @Fumble Fingers, thank you. I am not a native speaker and sometimes writing in a foreign language may feel like walking on thin ice, you never know where it is going to break :)... Your first comment was the question: 'Does this answer your question?' And I see that you preferred 'this'. Would it be equally ok then to say : 'Does that answer your question?' Is there no difference whatsoever between the two? – fev Dec 04 '20 at 17:39
  • @fev: In Today, the Parliament of Solla Sollew dissolved the Supreme Court; that was the last obstacle to its becoming a dictatorship, you need to use that, because the Supreme Court no longer exists. In This is the only key to my house; keep it safe, you need to use this because the key is right here. In French, that thing is cette chose-là and this thing is cette chose-ci, but much of the time you just use cette chose, because it doesn't matter. In English, much of the time they both work, but you still have to decide. In those cases, it doesn't matter which you pick. – Peter Shor Dec 04 '20 at 17:46
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    In the cases where it doesn't matter, as far as I know neither is more formal. Sometimes one is slightly closer to the meaning than the other, and native English speakers will try to choose that one (but if you pick the other one, it's not a big deal). In the cases where it matters, one of them is wrong. – Peter Shor Dec 04 '20 at 17:49
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    @fev: Haha - I see you say you noticed that I preferred "this". In fact, I didn't - *that* was just the pre-existing text of a standard closevote reason here on ELU. But *this* does illustrate a consistently-observed difference in usage for this pair of "relativisers". In the closevote text, the "referent" of the relativiser "this" comes *after* it, not *before* it. *This/That* is ALWAYS the case - if the referent comes later, you can't reference it with "that", only "this". – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 18:05
  • @FumbleFingers Ok, got you. So are you saying that in this case 'Does that answer your question?' is incorrect? – fev Dec 04 '20 at 18:10
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    So you can validly say 1: You exist. You know this. 2: You exist. You know that. 3: You know this: you exist. But you *can't* validly say 4: You know that: you exist. Note that it's a completely different construction if we remove the colon (the word "that" has a different syntactic role in I know that* I exist, where "that" effectively refers back* to "[what] I know". – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 18:19
  • I could put a link to a question here in a comment, and *after* that link I could write "Does that solve it?" (or this - they're both fine). But If I write my question before the link, I can only use "this". – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 18:22
  • Yes, it makes perfect sense. If the referent is after the pronoun, we can only use 'this'. So basically, 'this' has the connotation of 'the following, what I am going to say next'. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 19:45

1 Answers1

1

This and that are demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative adjectives/determiners.

This tends to relate to nouns that are indicated in some way and are close in space or time.

1. This- pronoun and determiner is used with the object/person that is

(i) new [to the experience of the listener.] Introduction: “This [girl] is my sister.”

(ii) the first thing - “This [point] is where we start.”

(iii) presently, ‘for the first time’ – “This [visit] is my first time in Africa.”

(iv) the only thing being presently discussed/experienced - “You have described an interesting idea; this [innovation] could be worth a fortune.”

(v) will be immediately discussed/experienced, - “This [topic] is what we will discuss.” “This [injection] will not hurt.”

(vi) the nearest thing (in space or time) - This [ring] on my finger is expensive.

(vii) the closest thing indicated – “This [watch] that I am pointing at is useless.”

(viii) This cannot be a relative pronoun:

*The man this is wearing a hat is my uncle.

The man that is wearing a hat is my uncle.

This is more immediate than that. It is used to indicate that what follows is of especial interest: “This is a good question" -> This is an interesting question (i) that has not been asked before or (ii) that introduces an aspect that has not been discussed before or (iii) that raises an interesting point. Normally, we would say “That is a good question.”

That tends to relate to nouns that are indicated in some way and are more distant in space or time.

2. That - pronoun and determiner is the object that

(i) has been discussed/experienced, - “I told you about that [mistake] yesterday!”

(ii) is the next and subsequent things, - “This [pin] is rusty, now let’s look at that [points at another pin] one.”

(iii) is a more distant object in space - “That [piece of paper over there] is my shopping list.”

(iv) is a (more) distant object in time. “Ah yes, 1950… that [year] was the year I went to Brazil.” Or

(v) is relative pronoun. “You have described an interesting idea that (i.e. that idea) could be worth a fortune.” (compare with “which”)

Greybeard
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  • This is more immediate than that. It is used to indicate that what follows is of especial interest: “This is a good question" -> This is an interesting question (i) that has not been asked before or (ii) that introduces an aspect that has not been discussed before or (iii) that raises an interesting point. Normally, we would say “That is a good question.” - THIS is what I was looking for in fact... all the rest was clear to me, but I felt there must be another kind of difference between 'this' and 'that' in writing. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 18:14
  • I can't see anything in this answer addressing the specific point that's confusing to OP. What he needs to understand is that it's just a stylistic choice whether to use *this* or *that* to reference immediately-preceding text (To be or not to be. This/That* is the question).* But you can't use *that* for a "forward" reference. So it has to be *This is what I think. [my thoughts]* - we can't validly use *that* in that context. – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 18:36
  • @fev You have answered your own question. Why, then, did you ask it? Just trolling? – Xanne Dec 04 '20 at 18:45
  • @Xanne I simply pasted the passage in Greybeard's answer that answered my question. I am sorry if that confused you. – fev Dec 04 '20 at 18:49