Re: Smyth 2501 Agreement of Relative Pronouns

Greek Learning Greek
1

I don’t understand how a relative pronoun can agree with its antecedent in person. Shouldn’t they only agree in gender and number?

Please see Smyth 2501:

A relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender, number, and person; its case is determined by the construction of the clause in which it stands.

οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀνὴρ ὅς ἦλθε this is the man who came,

αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ γυνὴ ἢν ἐζητοῦμεν this is the woman whom we were looking for,

…
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Smyth+grammar+2501&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0007

Thanks in advance.

2

I guess that he’s saying that you see the person of the relative pronoun if a verb in the clause happens to agree with it.

Example in your link: οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅστις ἄνθρωπος γεγένημαι

You can see that ὅστις is “first person” because the verb agreeing with it is γεγένημαι, not γεγένηται.