Using a completely different different approach, Lapaire and Rotge (1996) suggest that the relative pronouns that and which , though often appearing to be interchangeable after inanimate head nouns , codify different psycho-grammatical strategies. They quote a sentence taken from a New York Times obituary on George Balanchine, which used that in the original text:
George Balanchine was the foremost exponent of “abstract “ or plotless ballet… But ballet that told no story did not always win favor with the public.
(Lapaire and Rotge ,p 38)