'That' vs 'where'

Question

Is there any difference between the following sentences?1- The restaurant that my cousin works at is really expensive.2-The restaurant where my cousin works is really expensive.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There's no semantic difference, but the syntax is not quite the same.

[1] The restaurant [that my cousin works at ___ ] is really expensive.

[2] The restaurant [where my cousin works] is really expensive.

In [1] "that" is object of the preposition "at", as shown by the gap notation '___'.

In [2] "where" is an adjunct of place, where the "at" component is contributed by "where" together with its spatial location function.

They both mean that my cousin works at some restaurant which is very expensive.

(Note: I've assumed in [1] that "that" is a relative pronoun. Some modern grammars claim it is a subordinator.)

'That' vs 'where'

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