Editing Relative clause (section)

====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>