Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

Get access

Relative Clause: Rabbinic Hebrew
(1,919 words)

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies its noun head (also called its ‘antecedent’) in a way similar to that of attributive adjectives. Relatives in Rabbinic Hebrew are always introduced by a relative word (Kutscher 1959:34), which is almost exclusively -ש še- ‘that, which’. Sentences like אין לו מי יתירנו ʾen lo mi yattirennu ‘there is no one to render it permissible’ (Tosefta Menaḥot 6.20) are to be analyzed as containing a subject clause in the form of מי mi (subject) + יתירנו yattirennu (predicate), lit.: ‘there is no one: who will permit it’, and not as a s…

Cite this page
Azar, Moshe, “Relative Clause: Rabbinic Hebrew”, in: Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, Edited by: Geoffrey Khan. Consulted online on 24 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2212-4241_ehll_EHLL_COM_00000056>
First published online: 2013
First print edition: 9789004176423



▲   Back to top   ▲