Attraction grammar: Encyclopedia - Attraction grammar

Attraction (grammar)

Attraction is the process by which a relative pronoun takes on -- that is, is "attracted to" -- the case of its antecedent, rather than having the case appropriate to its function in the relative clause. For example, in this English sentence, the relative pronoun has the appropriate case, namely, the accusative:

This sentence, on the other hand, shows attraction:

Because the antecedent, "[of] the man", is possessive, the relative pronoun has become possessive too. Attraction is a theoretical process in standard English, but is common in the Greek of the Septuagint and also occurs in the New Testament.

Category: Grammar

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Attraction grammar", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki