LessonsDefining the Subject by a Relative Pronoun: Purposes and Rhetorical ApplicationsQuiz

لِعَدَمِ عِلْمِ الْمُخَاطَبِ بِالْأَحْوَالِ الْمُخْتَصَّةِ بِهِ سِوَى الصِّلَةِ
Because the addressee knows none of the relevant identifying circumstances of the subject apart from the relative clause.

The key is the limit of the audience's knowledge. A speaker may lack a person's name or title but know a particular action or attribute associated with that person. The clause then supplies the available route of identification.

This is one reason for a relative expression, not its only use. Subsequent uses retain a relative clause even when the person's identity is already known, in order to achieve an additional rhetorical purpose.

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Source principle: what the addressee knows

Defining the Subject by a Relative Pronoun: Purposes and Rhetorical Applications

لِعَدَمِ عِلْمِ الْمُخَاطَبِ بِالْأَحْوَالِ الْمُخْتَصَّةِ بِهِ سِوَى الصِّلَةِ
Because the addressee knows none of the relevant identifying circumstances of the subject apart from the relative clause.

The key is the limit of the audience's knowledge. A speaker may lack a person's name or title but know a particular action or attribute associated with that person. The clause then supplies the available route of identification.

This is one reason for a relative expression, not its only use. Subsequent uses retain a relative clause even when the person's identity is already known, in order to achieve an additional rhetorical purpose.