Interrogative, Indefinite, and Relative Pronouns. Deliberative Questions. Conditional Relative Clauses

§385

The declension of the interrogative pronoun, τίς, τί, who? which? what?, is as follows:

A table appears here in the book.

§387

The acute accent in the interrogative pronoun is never changed to the grave. Example: τί λέγει ; what does he say?

§388

The declension of the indefinite pronoun, τις, τι, some one, something, a certain one, a certain thing, is as follows:

A table appears here in the book.

§389

The indefinite pronoun is declined like the interrogative pronoun except that all the forms of the indefinite pronoun are enclitic and receive an accent only when the rules in §92 so prescribe.

§390

Both the interrogative and the indefinite pronouns can be used either with a noun or separately.

Examples: (1) τίνα καρπὸν ἔχετε; what fruit have ye? (2) τί λέγεις; what dost thou say? (3) ἄνθρωπός τις, a certain man; (4) εἶπέν τις, α certain man said.

§392

Indirect questions, like the ordinary form of indirect discourse (see §308), retain the same mood and tense as those which would have been found in the direct discourse lying back of the indirect.

§393

The same interrogative words are commonly used in indirect questions as those which are used in direct questions.

Examples: ἠρώτησεν αὐτὸν τίς ἐστιν, he asked him who he was. The direct question lying back of the indirect was, τίς εἶ; who art thou? (2) εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ποῦ μένει, he told them where he was abiding. The direct question which he was answering was ποῦ μένεις ; where art thou abiding?

§394

The subjunctive is used in deliberative questions. A deliberative question is a question that expects an answer in the imperative mood.

Examples: (1) ποιήσωμεν τοῦτο ἢ μὴ ποιήσωμεν; shall we do this or shall we not do it? The answer expected is in the imperative — do it or do not do it. (2) τί ποιήσωμεν; what shall we do? The natural answer is do this or do that, or the like,

§395

The declension of the relative pronoun, ὅς, ἥ, ὅ, who, which, is as follows:

A table appears here in the book.

§396

It will be observed that except for 6 instead of ὅν in the nominative and accusative singular neuter (compare αὐτός and ἐκεῖνος) the declension of the relative pronoun is like that of a regular adjective of the second and first declension. The nominative singular feminine and the nominative plural masculine and feminine are like the corresponding forms of the article except that the article in those forms is proclitic.

§397

Like other pronouns, the relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender and number but has its own case in its own clause.

Example: (1) ὁ ἀπόστολος ὃν εἶδες ἀπῆλθεν, the apostle whom you saw went away; (2) ἀληθῆ ἦν πάντα ἃ εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, all things which Jesus said were true; (3) ὁ μαθητὴς ὃν ἠγάπησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἦν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ, the disciple whom Jesus loved was in the house.

§398

But where the antecedent of the relative pronoun is in the genitive or dative case and the relative pronoun itself would naturally be in the accusative case as the object of the verb in the relative clause, it is regularly attracted to the case of its antecedent.

Examples: πάντων δὲ θαυμαζόντων ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οἷς ἐποίει εἶπεν πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ...., but when all were wondering at all the things which He was doing, He said to his disciples..... Here οἷς would have been accusative if it had retained the case which it would have had in its own clause. But it is attracted to the case of πᾶσιν.

§399

The antecedent of the relative pronoun is frequently left unexpressed. Thus ὅς can mean he who; ἥ, she who; ὅ, that which, what; οἵ, the men who, or they who; αἵ, the women who; ἅ, the things which.

Examples: (1) οὐκ ἔξεστίν μοι ὃ θέλω ποιῆσαι, it ts not lawful for me to do that which I wish (or to do what I wish). (2) ὃς γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν καθ᾽ ὑμῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐστιν, for he who is not against you is for you. In such a case essentially the same thought is expressed as by the article with participle—ὅς οὐκ ἔστιν is almost like ὁ μὴ ὤν. But in many cases only the article with participle could be used. For example in the one who has could hardly be expressed in any way but by ἐν τῷ ἔχοντι. (3) ἔχω ὃ θέλω, I have what I wish. Here the English word what is a short way of saying the thing which or that which and so is correctly translated by ὅ. Compare λέγω αὐτῷ τί ἔχω, I tell him what I have. Here the English word what is an interrogative word in an indirect question, and so is correctly translated by τί.

§400

The indefinite relative clauses which in English are marked by the suffix -ever added to the relative word (e. g., whoever, whichever, whatever, wherever, whenever), have in Greek ordinarily the subjunctive with the particle ἄν or ἐάν. This is one of the commonest uses of the subjunctive.

Examples: (1) ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι οὐ σώσει αὐτήν, for whoever wishes to save his life shall not save it; (2) ὃς ἂν πιστεύσῃ σωθήσεται, whoever believes [or shall believe] shall be saved; (3) εἰς ἣν δ᾽ ἂν πόλιν εἰσέλθητε ὄψεσθε ἐν αὐτῇ μαθητάς, and into whatever city ye enter [or shall enter] ye shall see disciples in it; (4) ὅπου ἐὰν ἧ ὁ διδάσκαλος ἐκεὶ ἔσονται καὶ οἱ διδασκόμενοι br’ αὐτοῦ, wherever the teacher is there will be also those who are being taught by him.

§401

It will be observed that the verb in the English translation of these conditional relative clauses can be either future indicative or present indicative. It often makes little difference which is used. In such clauses the present indicative in English frequently refers to future time.