Editing Relative clause (section)

===Semitic languages===

====Hebrew====
In [[Biblical Hebrew language|Biblical Hebrew]], relative clauses were headed with the word ''asher'', which could be either a [[relative pronoun]] or a [[relativizer]]. In later times, ''asher'' became interchangeable with the prefix ''she-'' (which is also used as a conjunction, with the sense of English ''that''), and in [[Modern Hebrew language|Modern Hebrew]], this use of ''she-'' is much more common than ''asher'', except in some formal, archaic, or poetic writing. In meaning, the two are interchangeable; they are used regardless of whether the clause is modifying a human, regardless of their grammatical case in the relative clause, and regardless of whether the clause is restrictive.

Further, because Hebrew does not generally use its word for ''is'', ''she-'' is used to distinguish adjective phrases used in epithet from adjective phrases used in attribution:

:''Ha-kise l'-yad-ekh.'' ("The chair is next to you." - ''lit.'', "The-chair [is] next-to-you.")
:''Ha-kise '''she-'''l'-yad-ekh shavur.'' ("The chair next to you is broken."—''lit.'', "The-chair '''that'''-[is]-next-to-you [is] broken.")

(This use of ''she-'' does not occur with simple adjectives, as Hebrew has a different way of making that distinction. For example, ''Ha-kise adom'' means "The chair [is] red", while ''Ha-kis'e ha-adom shavur'' means "The red chair is broken"—literally, "The chair the red [is] broken.")

Since 1994, the official rules of Modern Hebrew (as determined by the [[Academy of the Hebrew Language]]) have stated that relative clauses are to be punctuated in Hebrew the same way as in English (described above). That is, non-restrictive clauses are to be set off with commas, while restrictive clauses are not:

:''Ha-kise, '''she-'''at yoshevet alav, shavur.'' ("The chair, '''which''' you are sitting on, is broken.")
:''Ha-kise '''she-'''at yoshevet alav shavur.'' ("The chair '''that''' you are sitting on is broken.")

Nonetheless, many speakers of Modern Hebrew still use the pre-1994 rules, which were based on the German rules (described above). Except for the simple adjective-phrase clauses described above, these speakers set off all relative clauses, restrictive or not, with commas:

:''Ha-kise, '''she-'''at yoshevet alav, shavur.'' ("The chair '''that''' you are sitting on is broken," ''or'' "The chair, '''which''' you are sitting on, is broken.")

One major difference between relative clauses in Hebrew and those in (for example) English is that in Hebrew, what might be called the "regular" pronoun is not always suppressed in the relative clause. To reuse the prior example:

:''Ha-kise, '''she-'''at yoshevet '''alav''', shavur.'' (''lit.'', "The chair, '''which''' you are sitting '''on it''', [is] broken.")

More specifically, if this pronoun is the subject of the relative clause, it is always suppressed. If it is the direct object, then it is usually suppressed, though it is also correct to leave it in. (If it is suppressed, then the special preposition ''et'', used to mark the direct object, is suppressed as well.) If it is the object of a preposition, it must be left in, because in Hebrew—unlike in English—a preposition cannot appear without its object. When the pronoun is left in, ''she-'' might more properly be called a [[relativizer]] than a relative pronoun.

The [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[relativizer]] ''she-'' 'that' "might be a shortened form of the Hebrew relativizer ''‘asher'' 'that', which is related to [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''‘ashru'' 'place' (cf. Semitic *''‘athar''). Alternatively, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''‘asher'' derived from ''she-'', or it was a convergence of Proto-Semitic ''dhu'' (cf. Aramaic ''dī'') and ''‘asher'' [...] Whereas [[Israeli Hebrew|Israeli]] ''she-'' functions both as [[complementizer]] and relativizer, ''ashér'' can only function as a relativize."<ref>{{cite book |page=79 |first=Ghil'ad |last=Zuckermann |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann |date=2006 |chapter=Chapter 3: Complement clause types in Israeli |title=Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology |editor-first1=R. M. W. |editor-last1=Dixon |editor-link1=R. M. W. Dixon |editor-first2= Alexandra Y. |editor-last2= Aikhenvald |editor-link2=Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref>

====Arabic====

=====Literary Arabic=====
In [[Modern Standard Arabic|Modern Standard]] and [[Classical Arabic]] there is a relative pronoun (in Arabic: {{lang|ar|الاسم الموصول}} {{transliteration|ar|DIN|''al-ism al-mawṣūl''}}) ''allaḏī'' (masculine singular), feminine singular ''allatī'', masculine plural ''allaḏīna'', feminine plural ''allawātī'', masculine dual ''allaḏānī'' (nominative) / ''allaḏayni'' (accusative and genitive), feminine dual ''allatānī'' (nom.) / ''allataynī'' (acc. and gen.).

Its usage has two specific rules: it agrees with the antecedent in gender, number and case, and it is used only if the antecedent is definite. If the antecedent is indefinite, no relative pronoun is used. The former is called ''jumlat sila'' (conjunctive sentence) while the latter is called ''jumlat sifa'' (descriptive sentence).

{{fs interlinear|lang=ar|indent=3
|الفتى الذي رأيته في الصف أمس غائب اليوم 
|al-fatā (a)lladhi ra’aytuhu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi ġā’ibun al-yawma
|"The boy I saw in class yesterday is missing today". (relative pronoun present)}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=ar|indent=3
|هذا فتًى رأيته في الصف أمس
|hāḏā fatan ra’aytu-hu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi
|"This is a boy I saw in class yesterday". (relative pronoun absent)}}

=====Colloquial Arabic=====
In Colloquial Arabic the multiple forms of the relative pronoun have been levelled in favour of a single form, a simple conjunction, which in most dialects is ''illi'', and is never omitted. So in Palestinian Arabic the above sentences would be:

* ''alwalad illi shuftō fi (a)ssaff embārih ghāyeb alyōm''
* ''hāda walad illi shuftō fi (a)ssaff embārih''

As in Hebrew, the regular pronoun referring to the antecedent is repeated in the relative clause - literally, "the boy whom I saw '''him''' in class..." (the ''-hu'' in ''ra'aituhu'' and the ''-ō'' in ''shuftō''). The rules of suppression in Arabic are identical to those of Hebrew: obligatory suppression in the case that the pronoun is the subject of the relative clause, obligatory retention in the case that the pronoun is the object of a preposition, and at the discretion of the speaker if the pronoun is the direct object. The only difference from Hebrew is that, in the case of the direct object, it is preferable to retain the pronoun rather than suppress it.