DECLENSION OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
118. These are the forms of the simple relatives:—
| SINGULAR AND PLURAL. | ||||
| Nom. | who | which | that | what |
| Poss. | whose | whose | — | — |
| Obj. | whom | which | that | what |
HOW TO PARSE RELATIVES.
119. The gender, number, and person of the relatives who, which, and that must be determined by those of the antecedent; the case depends upon the function of the relative in its own clause.
For example, consider the following sentence:
"He uttered truths that wrought upon and molded the lives of those who heard him."
Since the relatives hold the sentence together, we can, by taking them out, let the sentence fall apart into three divisions: (1) "He uttered truths;" (2) "The truths wrought upon and molded the lives of the people;" (3) "These people heard him."
That evidently refers to truths, consequently is neuter, third person, plural number. Who plainly stands for those or the people, either of which would be neuter, third person, plural number. Here the relative agrees with its antecedent.
We cannot say the relative agrees with its antecedent in case. Truths in sentence (2), above, is subject of wrought upon and molded; in (1), it is object of uttered. In (2), people is the object of the preposition of; in (3), it is subject of the verb heard. Now, that takes the case of the truths in (2), not of truths which is expressed in the sentence: consequently that is in the nominative case. In the same way who, standing for the people understood, subject of heard, is in the nominative case.