Here is the full sentence He who controls the past, commands the future. Are there any difference between He who controls... and Who controls the past...?
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Who could refer to a "she" in "Who controls the past...". But other than that, "He who controls.." means the same as "Who controls..."– TimRCommented Mar 16, 2018 at 21:54
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Who controls the past...? is a question.– Weather VaneCommented Mar 16, 2018 at 22:56
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Who controls the past, commands the future. is not quite correct when used as a statement. It should be Whoever controls the past, commands the future.– Lucian SavaCommented Mar 16, 2018 at 23:37
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2 Answers
Who controls the past, commands the future.
This is not grammatical by the usual formal approaches, but at the same time there may be circumstances in which it is acceptable. There is no complete verb because there's no subject, because you can't use who like that in a declarative sentence.
Let's look at the sentence structure. The principal verb is actually commands; the first half of the sentence is a noun phrase acting as the subject of the main verb. Traditionally, and in my experience by modern expectations, this requires an appropriate specification that includes a noun or pronoun. Who is either a w-question word, or it requires an antecedent - a noun or pronoun to which it refers. That is why he who controls... is generally considered grammatical, and who controls... is not considered grammatical unless it is a question.
But... this form is seen in mottoes, where grammar is often lax in the interests of brevity. It's most famously found in that of the SAS: who dates, wins. Thus the form will be familiar and has a decent chance of being accepted.
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I would take this as a reduced form, with the implied fuller form being "the person who controls..." Commented Dec 30, 2020 at 20:35
In the contexts that you provided, 'He who' functions equivalently to 'whoever', but not equivalent to simply 'who'.
Saying "Who owns a car drives where they please." excludes a subject for the predicate. In this case, the sentence is functionally equal to "Who owns a car [also] drives where they please.", and the predicate would be "owns a car [also] drives where they please.".
The word 'whoever' indicates that you're adding specificity to a subject. In the sentence "Whoever owns a car [also] drives where they please.", 'whoever' shifts the predicate to "drives where they please.", and the subject is now "Whoever owns a car", indicating that from everyone 'whoever', or from all males 'he who', the subject is those that "own a car".
