French has an elegant and strict rule. The relative pronouns qui and que must be preceded by ce when there is not an antecedent. Thus:
The woman that I love…
La femme que j’aime...
But:
J’aime ce qu’il a dit…
I love that which he said…
This rule is very strict and I don’t believe it is ever broken.
Now, this gives me an opportunity to ask the precise question that has been nagging me for a while: Does Attic have a strict rule like this that requires the insertion of a demonstrative pronoun when there is no antecedent? If not, how, how often and under what circumstances does one proceed otherwise? I would like answers that if possible make no reference to either indefinite relatives nor attraction.
It seems that this rule gets broken in Attic but I haven’t been able to figure out exactly how. I am finding English to be useless as a guide because I don’t know and almost don’t want to know the rules of English, so if you can abstain from making reference to English usage, that would be nice also.
I have some inchoate thoughts and speculations about it, but I am really looking for a sharp answer as this has really been bothering me.
Thanks in advance.
