“There’s glory for you!”
H. Dumpty, founder of linguistic pragmatics
If you’re looking for a balanced discussion of the That vs Who/whom/whose/which controversy, go here. I’m not interested.
A hundred years ago the Fowlers put forward a modest proposal. Linguistic bureaucrats elevated this proposal to a Rule, linguistic libertarians resisted; and today the Fowlers’ proposal is an Issue hotly contested by Conservative and Liberal ideologues.
I have no taste for political disputation. While my sympathies lie with the Liberals (who in the Fowlers’ day would have been the Reac …