295. Options in Saying Where

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Indicating the location of something involves much more than just prepositions

THE VARIABILITY OF LOCATION DESCRIPTIONS

The obvious means of describing a location, prepositions, is by no means the only one. Like most types of writing, location descriptions use a wide variety of language, both elementary and more advanced, some of which can on occasion give rise to language errors.

This post presents some of the more sophisticated aspects of location descriptions, and also examines elementary and more advanced aspects that can cause errors. In this respect, it resembles Guinlist posts like 82. Common Errors in Making Comparisons and 118. Problems with Conditional “if”.

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NON-PREPOSITIONAL FEATURES OF LOCATION DESCRIPTIONS

1. Verbs

Some verbs describe a location alongside a preposition, while others do so without one. The most basic verb of the former kind is, of course, BE. The more colourful alternatives (able to express either an action or a state) include BE FOUND, BE PLACED, BE LOCATED, BE SITUATED, BE POSITIONED, BE ARRANGED, BE SCATTERED, COME, GO, GROW, LIE, NESTLE, PASS, REST, RUN, SIT, STAND and STRETCH.

Some states are temporary, some permanent. People and animals, for example, tend to be anywhere temporarily, while buildings and plants are typically more permanent. The underlined verbs above mostly show permanent locations; the others can show either type. Additional observations are:

BE FOUND typically accompanies the name of a broad region rather than exact location:

(a) Giraffes are found in Africa.

BE PLACED implies recent deliberate placement (see the discussion of sentence #f in 66. Types of Passive Verb Meaning).

BE POSITIONED implies location within a frame or structure, such as an actual or diagrammatic house:

(b) The bathroom is positioned directly above the kitchen.

COME accompanies a position in a sequence (see 290. Ways of Using COME, #6).

BE ARRANGED and BE SCATTERED help to show multiple locations, the former indicating purposeful positioning, the latter randomness:

(c) The tents were arranged/scattered around a kitchen area.

GO, PASS, RUN and STRETCH help show the locations of long, thin structures, such as roads. Typical prepositions after them are across, along and between.

GROW describes plant locations.

LIE (see 97. Verb Form Confusions) is useful for giving the location of something more horizontal than vertical, such as a sleeping animal or a field.

REST often helps show a location under or between something larger, such as a hill. NESTLE is a more poetic verb with a similar meaning.

STAND is, not surprisingly, the opposite of LIE, typically helping to locate taller objects and creatures.

The other kind of location verb – not requiring a preposition – is well illustrated by one of the uses of FACE (see 314. Words with Complicated Grammar 4, #1):

(d) The cinema faces (= is opposite) the hotel.

Other examples, with their implied preposition, are ADJOIN (next to), COVER (over), CROSS (across), ENCIRCLE (round), FILL (inside), FLANK (alongside), FOLLOW (alongside), INHABIT (in), NEIGHBOUR (near), OCCUPY (on), SEPARATE (between), SPAN (over + across), and TOUCH (against).

Verbs whose meaning implies a preposition are not only found in location descriptions. For some examples of other usage, see 205. Paraphrasing Prepositions with Words of Other Kinds.

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2. Participles

Some verbs whose meaning includes that of a preposition can in their -ing (participle) form exactly replace that preposition. In the following example, facing means “opposite”:

(e) The cinema facing the hotel was constructed in the 1930s.

A special feature of preposition-like participles is that they must often directly follow a noun – cinema in (e). Otherwise the corresponding preposition is necessary instead. For example, if facing the hotel followed constructed above, it would probably become opposite the hotel. The reason is that participles used like a preposition do not lose their need for a noun to describe. 

Participles replacing a preposition must also be made from a verb that needs or allows an object noun (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors). This is because prepositions normally have a partner noun that the participle must accommodate (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #1).

Other participle equivalents of location prepositions include:

across – spanning / crossing
around – surrounding / encircling
beside – flanking
between – separating / intervening
in front of – fronting
into – accessing
near – neighbouring
of – comprising
on – occupying / covering
through – dividing / separating
up – ascending / climbing
with – accompanying

One possible benefit of participles compared to prepositions is greater descriptive precision. For example, around is vague about the completeness of encirclement whereas encircling is not. For an occasional benefit of preferring a preposition, see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles, #3.

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3. Adverbs

One group of location adverbs is the familiar kind that amplify the meaning of a verb or entire sentence – words like here, everywhere, nearby, upstairs, separately and randomly, plus preposition-resembling ones like above, below, inside and outside, and preposition phrases like across the street. The next section presents a special use of all these.

In addition, there are adverbs that amplify the meaning of a preposition after them, such as well:

(f) The farm is well off the road.

Here, well indicates that the distance off the road is substantial but not huge. A smaller distance might be indicated with just, a larger one with way or far (see 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words, #2).

There are surprisingly many adverbs that can precede a preposition in this way. Directly in sentence (b) above is another example. Not all such uses are location-describing, but plenty are. Other common ones are close, deep, high, immediately, much and right (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition).

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4. “There” Sentences

Without previous mention of something whose location is being named, a sentence is likely to begin with there (see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences, #7):

(g) There is a hotel located behind the tower block.

Using a before hotel here instead of the indicates previous non-mention. The next word is a participle (located without is), but could also be which (followed by is located), or just a preposition (behind).

Location phrases can also precede there (Behind the hotel there is…), usually enabling there to be omitted (see 307. Word Order Variations, #3).

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SOURCES OF ERROR

The following are notable:

5. Cultural Perspectives

The meanings of location-describing prepositions sometimes reflect a culture-specific way of seeing the world. For example, English speakers say they travel on a bus, not in one, probably because they view buses as being primarily underneath travellers (rather like horses). Many other cultures, however, think of buses as containers, and reflect that in using a preposition more like in than on. For more on transport prepositions, see 73. Prepositions for Saying How.

Differing cultural perspectives also seem to be associated with structural position nouns like top, bottom, middle, side, end and corner. English speakers view the narrower internal side of corners in this context as containers rather than specific points, so typically indicate the occupancy of one with in, not at. Outside of structures, though, the wider side of a corner is often referred to with at (exactly) or on (more vaguely).

The middle is another structural position noun that typically follows in, again suggesting that English speakers are thinking of an area rather than a point. With top, bottom, end and side, however, the typical position indicator is at. If on is used instead, the idea of attachment is also present.

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6. “Near” and “Far”

These words – also considered respectively in 254. Tricky Word Contrasts 10 (#4) and 175. Tricky Word Contrasts 6 (#3) – are easy to confuse with nearby and far away.

Near can be a verb (= “become close to a destination”, as in neared the city), preposition (were near the city), adverb (came/was near), or adjective (a near success). Nearby, on the other hand, can only be either an adverb (worked nearby) or an adjective (a nearby station; was nearby). The main problem with near and nearby is thus distinguishing their adverb and adjective uses.

As an adverb, near indicates closeness of something moving, nearby closeness of something static. Consequently, near typically accompanies movement verbs like COME, while nearby needs location ones like LIVE or STAND. This distinction also stands when near and nearby are adjectives after BE. Thus, saying a train is near suggests its approach, whereas saying it is nearby does not.

Things are different, though, with adjective usage before a noun. While nearby still implies just a non-moving position, near does not usually describe a position at all. Instead, near only makes combinations like a near success and a near miss, suggesting non-achievement, or ones like the near future, showing closeness in time rather than space. To express “coming near” before a noun, a different word – typically approaching – is necessary.

By contrast, the preposition near can imply either movement or non-movement, compensating for the inability of nearby to be a preposition. 

Far is similarly usable as either an adverb or adjective. As an adverb, it can accompany a motion verb, like GO or TRAVEL, or a position one, like BE SITUATED. However, in the latter case far needs a following word like away, off or above, or preposition phrase like to the right. Using position-describing far without suitable following wording (e.g. *The hills are far) is a fairly common error.

As an adjective, far usually means “further away” before its noun (e.g. the far side), and “distant” after it with a link verb like BE in between. The “distant” use must precede either away (or similar) or to + motion verb, e.g. …seems far to go. 

To say “distant” before a noun, faraway, far-off or distant are needed. Note the contrast between the adverb far away and the adjective faraway (see 26. One Word or Two?).

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7. Prepositions with Compass Words

Compass words like north and west may be nouns, adjectives or adverbs. As nouns (usually after the), they often follow a preposition of static location, commonly in or to (see 151. Ways of Using Compass Words). Here, to means “just outside the (compass adjective) boundary”:

(h) Sudan lies to the south (of Egypt).

Unlike in the south, this means Sudan is outside Egypt, but touching its southern border. To remove the idea of “touching Egypt” (for somewhere further south than Sudan, e.g. Uganda), it is necessary to replace to the south of with just south of (= “somewhere beyond the southern boundary of”). There would be no the because this use of south is an adverb, not a noun.

One other notable preposition is towards, meaning “almost in the (compass word) part of the same area”. In Egypt, for example, Luxor is located towards the south.

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8. Verbs after “there” + BE

As mentioned above, locations after there +VERB are often expressed with a participle or which (+ ordinary verb). Common errors are which + participle and an ordinary verb without which (see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences, # 7).

294. Parentheses

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The wording between two brackets or equivalent is very variable in its grammatical form

THE NATURE OF PARENTHESES

To some people, a parenthesis is two brackets, or the words between them, or both of these together. To others, it could also be a pair of dashes or commas, or the words between them, or both. The only type of paired punctuation that nobody associates with a parenthesis is quotation marks “ … ”.

The word parenthesis is of Greek origin, like various other names of punctuation marks (comma, period, colon, hyphen: see 223. Uses of Hyphens). Its origin is evidenced by its inclusion of two Greek prefixes (par- and -en-), its spelling with “th”, and its borrowed Greek plural ending -es (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Literally, it means “placement” (-thesis) “beside” (par-) “and within” (-en-).

This post looks in detail at the grammatical form that the wording within a parenthesis can take, and it attempts to identify at least some differences between the three above-mentioned types of parenthesis marker. Part of this information is also given in other Guinlist posts, but many points are new, as is the overall perspective.

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GRAMMATICAL FORMS OF PARENTHETICAL WORDING

Parentheses range in length from a single word to a fully-formed sentence or more.

1. Single Words

Single-word parentheses may be a noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb or verb. Consider how each of these might occupy the space in the following:

(a) Those involved, …, expressed their support.

One set of possibilities might be:

NOUN: trainees
PRONOUN: everyone
ADJECTIVE: exhausted
ADVERB: surprisingly
VERB: note

Parenthetical nouns, like trainees, give extra information about a noun or noun equivalent immediately before them, the two together forming an “apposition” construction (see 77. Pairing of Same-Meaning Nouns). Pronouns, like everyone, act similarly.

Parenthetical adjectives, like exhausted, very often describe the subject of a verb – those present in (a). They may be positioned either after it between two commas, as illustrated, or before it at the start of the sentence, between a full stop and a comma (see 283. Lesser-Known Features of Adjectives, #2).

Parenthetical adverbs, like surprisingly, tend to say something about their entire sentence rather than any particular part within it. Like parenthetical adjectives, they often start their sentence. Surprisingly illustrates a common type that expresses the writer’s own emotion about the information in the sentence. Others may indicate the nature of the sentence message (e.g. briefly), or show how it links logically with a preceding sentence message (e.g. consequently). For details of these and other types, see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs.

Lone parenthetical verbs, such as note, may similarly be in the “imperative” form. There are relatively few common ones, other examples being notice, observe, remember, recall and say (see 128. Imperative verbs in Formal Writing, #3). Another likely verb form is the participle, for example devastated or cheering in (a). Like parenthetical adjectives and adverbs, parenthetical participles often start their sentence (see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles).

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2. Multiple Words

Multi-word parentheses can be divided into two main kinds: able and not able to stand alone as an independent sentence. Examples are:

(b) Carbon dioxide is not the strongest “greenhouse” gas (methane is much stronger), but it contributes greatly to global warming.

(c) Whereabouts, could you tell me, is the library?

The sentence-like nature of the first parenthesis here is obvious. The second is not a possible independent sentence because it contains a verb (tell) that always needs an object (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors) but it does not contain an object. The object is, in fact, the rest of the sentence, the part outside the parenthesis. In formal writing, this kind of parenthesis often names a reported or quoted source:

(d) Human brains will never, Lee argues, be completely replaceable by machines.

There are various other ways in which a multi-word parenthesis can be less than a possible independent sentence. Most simply, it can be just a longer version of one of the word types listed above. Nouns and pronouns can be given various types of descriptive wording, or follow an apposition indicator like e.g., i.e., or, namely or in other words (see 286. Repeating in Different Words, #4). Adjectives and adverbs can similarly be added to in various ways (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much and 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it), and they are also replaceable by a preposition phrase (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2). Imperative verbs can be an auxiliary, e.g. be warned.

Parentheses that are neither an expanded single word nor a possible full sentence tend to include a verb. As well as the kind illustrated above in (c) and (d), there is a particularly common one where the verb and its subject are introduced by a conjunction, such as and, as, because or although. After albeit, the verb is often left unsaid (see 191. Exotic Grammar Structures 3, #1). Many conjunction-verb combinations form an adverb-like part of the overall sentence (see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions, #7), but a few like and, but, so and or create an addition more like an independent sentence.

Not all combinations of a conjunction and verb are visibly separated from the rest of their sentence so that they can be considered parentheses, but very many are. Those without such separation tend to form the second half of their sentence (see “Comma Use 2” in 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places).

The conjunction as is especially common in parentheses, typically helping to name the source of something said in the main part of the sentence. Very often, the source is visual, in the form of a graph, chart, map or diagram (see 104. Naming Data Sources with “as”):

(e) As indicated in Table 2, the trend has recently been upward.

As can also help to name an external written source, often suggesting the writer’s agreement (see 183. Statements between Commas, #3). It could, indeed, be added to sentence (d) above, before Lee.

The relative pronouns who, whom, which etc. are another group of words that prevent a parenthetical subject + verb from being like an independent sentence:

(f) Homer, who is said to have composed the Odyssey, may not have existed.

Like conjunctions, relative pronouns only sometimes make a parenthesis. They do so when they help to give “non-defining” rather than “defining” information (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas).

Another way of including a secondary verb in a sentence is by putting it into the to (infinitive) form. Again, this is not always possible: the infinitive must, like relative pronouns, be of the “non-defining” kind (see 289. Exotic Grammar Structures 8, #3):

(g) Today’s need, to reduce pollution, requires urgent attention.

Participles with -ing, yet another form that cannot be the main verb in a sentence, make a multi-word parenthesis when they start a sentence along with an object or complement (see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling Participles).

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PUNCTUATION OF PARENTHESES

The three types of punctuation that can show a parenthesis – brackets, commas and dashes – differ from each other in various subtle ways. Form-wise, comma parentheses are the only type that cannot usually surround a possible complete sentence, but they are the most able to start a sentence (a full stop replacing the first comma). Brackets are the only type that always come in twos. If a bracketed parenthesis ends a sentence, both brackets must be present along with a full stop after them. A comma or dash parenthesis in this position, by contrast, can replace the second comma or dash with the full stop.

A major reason for using brackets rather than commas or dashes seems to be to mark the information within them as slightly external to what is being said, rather than wholly integral to it. It is information that is relevant but not totally so, what is sometimes called an “aside”. One kind of semi-relevant information that might call for brackets is reminders: mentions of information that the addressee is suspected of knowing already. It would probably exist in sentence (g) above if the parenthetical information there (to reduce pollution) was enclosed in brackets rather than commas.

Other kinds of semi-relevant information are illustrated in the following:

(h) The real hard work (interviewing the candidates) follows.

(i) Data-inputting (a rather uninspiring form of employment) is a vital need in modern business.

The parenthesis in (h) indicates which is meant of various possibilities implied by a preceding general idea; that in (i) expresses a personal judgement within a context of factual description.

Another common use of brackets – widespread in this blog – refers readers to another part of the same text, or to another text altogether. Bracketed references to somewhere in the same text are usually written after the information taken from it. They may simply name or describe the relevant location (Graph 2, chapter 3, etc.), or they may include an imperative verb like see… or compare… (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing, #4) or an abbreviation like cf. or cp. (see 130. Formal Abbreviations).

Bracketed references to a different text may also follow information taken from it, but they commonly give the original author’s surname and publication date, perhaps with a page number. They can also go before the transported information, with the author’s surname written before rather than inside the brackets (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs).

Dashes tend to give greater importance to the information between them. For example, used instead of the commas in sentence (g) they would elevate the importance in their sentence of the words to reduce pollution. Dashes are also useful when a list introduced by a possible independent sentence needs to be followed by more of the sentence:

(j) There are two national languages in Canada – French and English – each with equal status.

Without added words after a list, such as those after French and English here, there needs to be a full stop instead of a dash, and the earlier dash must become a colon or comma (see the end of 55. Sentence Lists 2, #2). Even with added words present, two dashes are actually replaceable by two commas or even two brackets, though these would convert the list into a secondary point (subsidiary to equal status above), instead of making it part of the primary one.

Finally, the existence of more than one way to show a parenthesis makes it easier to present two consecutive parentheses:

(k) The upward demand trend – see graph (b) – justifies recent investment.

Here, the dashes mark see graph (b) as a parenthesis within the main sentence, and the brackets mark b inside this parenthesis as a further one. Using brackets for both parentheses could make it harder to differentiate them.

293. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 4

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Sometimes two grammar structures are hard to distinguish because of similar forms and / or meanings

TRICKY CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH

As in most languages, it is quite common in English to find two items, whether of vocabulary or of grammar, whose meanings are not easy to differentiate. Although a few pairs of this kind are covered by most English coursebooks, and are as a result well-known, many are overlooked.

In this blog, posts with the above title consider rarely-explained meaning differences between grammatical structures that seem to say the same. For a list of all the posts, see 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. These structures are to be distinguished from similar-seeming ones that often cause grammar errors – separately considered under the heading Confusions of Similar Structures. For differences between confusingly similar vocabulary items, there are numerous posts entitled “Tricky Word Contrasts” (for a full list, plus an alphabetical list of all of the words in them, click here).

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EXPLANATIONS OF SIMILAR STRUCTURES

1. “a week” versus “a week’s time”

To indicate the amount of time taken by something – its duration – a time-period word like minute, hour or day is enough by itself, without the word time after it (see 258. Saying How Long Something Lasts, #2 & #5):

(a) The task will be completed in a week.

(b) Lectures normally last (for) two hours.

The word time commonly follows in and a time noun ending in -’s (or -s’), e.g. in a week’s time. This combination expresses not duration but a future moment relative to the present. Thus, a week’s time in (a) would mean 7 days from now (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings and 288. Reading Obstacles 11, #7). In (b), two hours cannot be changed into two hours’ time.

If the start and end points of a later time period are both in the past, -s’ time must be replaced by later, without a preceding in, e.g. a week later in (a) (see 282. Features of History Writing, # 9).

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2. “a part of” versus “part of”

Part is a countable noun, so that its singular form ought not to be usable without a, the or similar in front (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). The fact that it can be so used means that it must change its meaning, just as happens with some other countable nouns that can drop the or a (see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #4 and #9). I think it becomes a preposition (see the end of 221. Multi-Word Prepositions).

Unsurprisingly, it is only in a part of that part has its usual meaning of component, constituent, division etc. (see 196. Saying what is inside Things), as in this example:

(c) Market analysis is a part of our strategy.

Dropping a before part of makes the idea it is describing sound much less clearly like a recognisable part of something. The meaning is, in fact, very like that of some:

(d) Part of the problem is the resources required.

Unfortunately, the borderline between a clearly differentiated “part” and a vague sub-quantity seems sometimes to be quite subjective. Sentence (c), for example, would not sound strange without a before part of.

(A) part of can also describe people:

(e) Pele was part of Brazil’s 1958 World Cup team.

Here, part of could be replaced by a member of. No other meaning is implied. With a before part, by contrast, Pele is perhaps implied to have a more definite role in the World Cup team, elevating his significance.

One situation where a cannot be dropped from a part of, regardless of the intended meaning, is when part is described by an adjective before it. For example, adding major before part in (d) and (e) would necessitate a major part in both. This constraint is perhaps further evidence for part of being a preposition. Other typical adjectives are integral, key, minor, noticeable, small and vital.

A noticeably common context for both a part of and part of is after as:

(f) This work was carried out as (a) part of a larger renovation project.

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3. “based on” versus “on the basis of”

These two familiar means of introducing a source or justification are grammatically both similar and different. The similarity – suggested by the fact that each ends with a simple preposition (on, of) – is a need to be used like a preposition in sentences (see 221. Multi-Word Prepositions).

The grammatical difference between the two expressions is hinted at by the nature of the first word in each: based is the “past participle” form of the verb BASE, while on is a preposition introducing the noun (the) basis (of). The participle nature of based means it is adjective-like, so that phrases containing it always need a nearby noun to describe, whereas the prepositional beginning of on the basis allows phrases containing it to be used like either an adjective or a verb-describing adverb (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2).

In fact, on the basis of seems to be more usually adverb-like than adjective-like. Compare:

(g) Consumers make purchases based on price.

(h) Consumers purchase on the basis of price.

Purchases in (g) is a noun, purchase in (h) a verb. Note, though, that on the basis of can directly follow a noun yet still be linked to an earlier verb. This would happen, for example, if goods followed purchase in (h): price would still be a justification of purchase, not of goods.

The grammatical difference between these two expressions resembles that between the two causal prepositions due to and owing to (see 72. Causal Prepositions).

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4. “as X sees” versus “as X sees it”

The verb SEE is usable not just to mean “observe”, but also metaphorically as a thought verb (see 315. Ways of Using SEE). In such cases, it varies in meaning according to whether it is associated with a fact or an opinion. Compare:

(i) Ryan (2021) sees THAT a new strategy IS necessary.

(j) Ryan (2021) sees a new strategy TO BE (or AS) necessary.

In (i), that after sees indicates mention of a fact, with the result that sees means “recognises”, and is easily usable to indicate agreement (see 152. Agreeing & Disagreeing in Formal Contexts, #1). In (j), however, a noun + to verb after sees instead of that indicates mention of an opinion, with the result that sees means “interprets” or “believes” (see 92. Verbs with an Object + “as”).

Because SEE in (i) and (j) is introducing an indirect statement, it can also be written after as in a parenthesis (see 183. Statements between Commas). Sentence (i) would then be:

(k) As Ryan (…) sees, a new strategy is necessary.

On the other hand, to rewrite sentence (j) with as, sees would need to be followed by it (see 190. Special Uses of “it”, #7).

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5. “who’s” versus “whose”

This fairly elementary distinction can nevertheless be quite troublesome. The two expressions are usable in either questions or relative clauses. For details of the question usage, see 285. Complexities of Question Words, #7. In relative clauses, who’s is similarly an abbreviation of who is – its apostrophe is not a possessive one. Its inclusion of the verb is means it can make a relative clause with just a noun or adjective after it:

(l) Please send the name of anyone who’s available.

Likewise, the auxiliary use of is (showing a continuous tense or passive verb) is a part of who’s, as for example in who’s visiting in (l) instead of who’s available.

By contrast, whose in relative clauses means “of whom”. It always needs a following noun + verb. For example, after anyone in (l) a possible continuation is …whose details you have.

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6. Two Meanings of “all that”

If you start a sentence with all that, all may refer back to something mentioned in the previous sentence or forward to something mentioned later. Compare:

(m) All that had been gained was lost.

(n) All that could be seen was a faint mark.

Sentence (m) does not identify the gained thing, but (n) identifies the seen one as a faint mark. Identified ideas are always at the end of the sentence after the verb BE (was above).

These possibilities are the same as those in sentences beginning with what – indeed, all that in both sentences above is grammatically replaceable by what (albeit with a slightly different meaning). The similarity is not surprising given that what means “the thing that”, a combination very like all that (see 145. Highlighting with “What…” Sentences). Indeed, the two combinations are very easy to confuse (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 3, #1).

In each use of all that, there is a different meaning of all. In sentences like (m), all means “everything”, whereas in sentences like (n) it means “the only thing”, and sometimes even “the sufficient thing” (see 189. Expressing Sufficiency, #1).

One other point to note is that that can, as a synonym of which, be dropped when it represents the object of the verb after it (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). A famous example is in the title of the Beatles song All (that) you Need is Love (= the only thing that you need is love), where all (that) is the object of need.