Qui with the meaning " celui qui"

I have come across the following in Granville Price's A Comprehensive French Grammar (paragraph 275):

"Note the following archaic constructions that survive only in the circumstances stated and must not be used otherwise:

"(i) Qui with the value of celui qui in a general sense, 'he who', remains in a number of proverbs and sayings, e.g.:

"Qui dort dîne........." And he goes on to quote other similar examples.

I'm now confused about when it is legitimate to use qui with the "he who" meaning since Price calls the construction archaic. Yet on the web you can find lots of expressions like "Amenez qui vous voulez" which seem to contain this meaning of qui.

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong, please?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on November 29, 2012 at 12:54am

It depends a bit on what you regard as the "same construction". Price's observation is true, I think, that "qui" would no longer be used in a neutral style as a general subject to mean "he who...", "whoever...".

However, I think it is a bit more common in the case you mention as the subject of a subordinate that is the object of another verb or preposition. So for example, you'll find examples like this:

C'est l'endroit idéal pour qui cherche du calme.

However, I think if you were to make that phrase the subject of the sentence:

"Qui cherche du calme trouvera cet endroit idéal pour se reposer."

this would sound more archaic or "proverbial" to many speakers.

Will be interesting to see what others think, of course.

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Key StudentPermalink Reply by Curt Jugg on November 29, 2012 at 9:33am

Thanks, Neil. Yes, all the examples I've found do seem to be relative clauses that are the object of another verb or preposition.