Luận văn a study on structural and semantic patterns of wh questions in english

ABSTRACT The thesis entitled “A Study on structural and semantic patterns of Wh- guestions in English” is to analyze and illustrate the types of wh-questions and their semantic features.

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

som tmnt

NGUYEN VAN CUONG

ASTUDY ON STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PATTERNS

OF WILQUESTIONS IN ENGLISI

NGHIÊN CỨU VÉ MÔ HÌNH CÂU TRÚC VÀ NGU NGHIA CUA CAU HOI

CÓ TỪ HỘI TRONG TIỆNG ANIT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

HANOT, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

socalt mac

NGUYÊN VĂN CƯƠNG

ASTUDY ON STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PATTERNS

OF WH-QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH

NGHIEN CUT VE MO HINH CAU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CUA CAU HOT

CO TU HOI TRONG TIENG ANH

M.A MINOR TIIESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: Assoc Praf Dr VO DAI QUANG

TIANOI, 2011

ABSTRACT

The thesis entitled “A Study on structural and semantic patterns of Wh- guestions in English” is to analyze and illustrate the types of wh-questions and their semantic features This one is also lo investigate the studcnis' calogoriss of mistakes when using wh-questions, find out the causes, suggest some possible solutions to these matters, and propose several pedagogical implications for the teachers at the research site ‘Lhis study is divided into three major sections The first one sets out the rationale of the study as well as the aims, the methodology and the design of the study The sccond section contains three chapters Chapter 1 offers the most relevant factors involving a wh-question such as notions of wh-questions, wh-thetorical qnastions, operators, wh-words and their semantic features relating information structurc, presupposition and theme and theme, Chapter 2 is

to desoribe the types of wh-questions based on structures and discourse and the types of presuppositions in wh-questions Chapler 3 4s the study about the mistakes that the students

List of tables

1, Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Objectives of the study

4, Scope of the stay

5, Methods of the study

6, Design of the Study esinmnenenmeninnininentiniaieninncanenmnneseete

1.3.1.1 Wh-wards as tnterrogative pronouns ed

13.4.3, Whewords as tdverbs ecc cusses dD

15 Theme- Rheme Structure in wh-questions

2.1, STRUCTURAL PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS:

2.1.1 Whswords as subjects of the wh-questians

3.3 Research instrument - Questionaire

3.2.4 Objectives of the survey QH6SIiQHGĂFE cere

3.2.2 The Survey questionnaire 3.4, Procedure

3 Limitations of the st0dy co t2 2.2 eeerarir

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The manber and percentage of each category of mistake

Table 2: Number and percentage of mistakes concerning the use of wh-word

Table 3: Nismber and percentage of misused operators

Table 4: Manber and percentage of inversion mistakes

Table 5: Number and percentage af other types of mistakes

Part 1: [niroduction

1 Ralionale

It is undeniable that English has been an essenhal means of communication and more and more Vietnamese students are aware of the importance of English to their study and their future, The ability to communicate clcarly and cfficiently in English contributes to the success

of the leamers at school and later in every phase of life, However, the sad fact is that students’ English proficiency expscially their abitily lo cormmumicats in Fngtish orally does uot really meet employers’ demand

‘At Kih Mon High School, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major stibject for the high school examination, It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to usc it as a key to scienee and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing the students They oflen keep quiet during speaking lessons; they mind speaking English There are many students who have good knowledge of grammar, can do reading and writing exercises wonderfully but they cannot express themselves in iinglish and find it hard to make questions

Besides making the discussion during a speaking lesson successful, questions also play

an important role in our daily Fife We ae nol able to keep communi

Ling going on well without asking questions We ask in order to exchange information, ideas, feeling and knowledge On the other hand, we sometimes ask questions not for the above purposes buf for confirmation, refusal irony or reply avoidance Tl is undeniable thal questions can not bè missed in communication

English wh-questions have long been the subject of the study of many researchers and Linguists Each of thom investigates some aspects of this type of questions Their study on English wh-questions have provided a great help for Vietamese learners of English There are some MA thesis that pay attention to English Wh-questions Hoa N.TX (1996) studies English questions in terms of S-P inversion Mcanwhile, Ms Nguycl D.T.M (1996) pays her attention to the aspect of English questions conceming teachers’ questions and politeness strategies And Tuyet LT.A contrasts English whoquestions and their equivalents in

Vietnamese in terms of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features specially there is also a PHD diss tation investigating English Wh-queslions Quang V.D (2000) looks at contrative analysis of questions in English and Vietnamese in terms of semantic and pragmatic teatures

in his PhD project Generally, such researchers mentioned above studied English wh- questions from different angles and mostly cither focus on syntactic and scmantic features of English Wh-questions or provide a theoretically general picture of wh-questions between the two languages, English and Vietnamase However, besides such certain contributions, thers still exist some gaps that need dealing with,

‘There are a lot of aspects concerning English wh-questions, however, in this paper the author would like to devote all my interest in the structural and semantic patterns of Wh- questions in English Then he would like to investigate the Kinds of mistakes in using wh- questions the students in Kinh Mon High School often make Basing on the findings, the author can maks some suggestions in order lo help the students lo overcome these difficulties and make questions fiuently

2, Aims of the study

‘The aims of the study are to:

~help raise the students’ awareness of structurat and semantic features of English

wh-questions

- deepen the author's knowledge for the improvement of teaching English wh-quastions to Vietnamese leamers of English,

3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the stndy are to :

~ cxamine the structural and scmantic patterns of English Wh-questions

- identity some common exrors and mistakes made by Vietnamese students and present some suggested solutions

‘The objectives of the study can be realized throngh the research questions

1 What are the structural and semantic patterns of English wh-questions?

2 What categories of mistakes do the suidents in Kinh Mon Ligh school afien make in using Eny

3 What should be done to improve the students! skill in using English wh-questions?

It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some bensfits to teachers and students at Kinh Mon high school

4 Scope of the study

The study on structural and semantic patterns of Wh-questions in English focuses on English wh-questions ftom the perspectives of structural and semantic features There are two types of wh- questions will be focused: wh-information questions and wierhetorical questions The author also conducted a questionnaire to find out the mistakes made by Vietnamese students, and from these mistakes, some possible solutions to the problems identified,

5 Methods of the study

A combination of different methods of analysis will be used in this study Firstly, the author applics the descriptive

English wh-questions The study is conducted by carcfully collecting materials fiom various sources to have full-blown information of English wh-questions, Secondly, the author designs

hod ta find oul the structural and semantic patterns of the

a questionaire in order to find oul what caleguries of mislakes the sludetnis often make when using wh-questions, The students’ eiors and mistakes will be analized Ali comments, remarks, recommendations and conchusion are based on the data analysis

The sheets of questionaire will be collecled randomly sa that this rascarch will help ta gain reliable data and a close investigation into the problems that the students are encountering

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three main parts:

- Part | is the Introduction of the study It includes the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the methods and design of the study

- Part 2 contains three chapters, in which Chapter 1 provides readers some theoretical

background on English questions in general, wh-words and their functions and the

operators and their fimctions in English question in brief Moreover, some basic terms ( such as given and new information, theme and rheme, and presuppositions ) arc alsa discussed Chapter 2 is also the main part of the study, provides the detailed analysis of English wh-questions in term of structural and semantic patterns of wh-guestions in English Chapter 3 presents a small rescarch of the author to find out some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using English wh-questions and to suggest some possible salulions

- Part 3 is the conclusion of the study, It also gives some implication for teachmg and leaming wh-questions and some suggestions for further studies

art 2: Development Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter deals with the relevant matters in wh-questions fo help language leamers understand how to use English wh-questions effectively The relevant matters ars:

- The operators and their funetions

- Question words and how they are used

- Given and new information

- Theme and theme in wh-questions

And another linguist, Givon (1990), observes that languages employ at least three, non-

exclusive, devices to signal a question:

fi tttonation;

4i), the addition of morphology or independent lexical items ("Q-markers");

Hit), a different word-order.'

Morcover, Quirk (1978) states that an utteranec can be called a question if it fulfills onc of the

following criteria; the operator is placed in front of the subject, an interrogative or wh-element

takes the initial posifion or intonation is ratsed at the end of the utterance

" http://vietnamese-grammar.group shet ac-uk/grammar en.php?ID 16

LL2 Definition of Wh-questions in English

According lo Quirk et al (1978), wh-questions are formed with the aid of one of the

following interrogative words ( or wh-words or sometimes called wh-elements)

This type of question is known as a wh-question because such a question begins with one af a

scrics of words beginning with wh- These include who, whom, whose, which, where, when,

why and how, although how does not begin with wh-

Unlike yesno questions, weh-questions gensrally have falling intonation Tlowever,

they sometimes have rising tone, which concems the interest in the answer

A wh-question is often formed according to the following mule

- the wh- elelment (ie the clause element containing the wh-word) come first in the sentence

apart from some conjunets such as on the other hand

- the wh-word itself takes first position in the wh-element However, in more formal style, the preposition precedes the complement

For questions that are seeking information, you place an interrogative-word before the inversion, such as:

Bg 1 What are you snudying?

The answer here will be the ‘what’, and you should sce that in the statement fonn (of a full

answer), this information replaces the interrogative pronoun and becomes the object:

Tam studying English

Because all you are asking for is the ‘what’, you can also give a very short answer:

What are you skadyingP English:

1.1.2.1 Whi-information questions

A wh-question is an open question (i.e it can have any number of answers) In a wh- question, @ scarch for a missing picce of information, the clement that functions as theme

called wh-element requests this information This element expresses the natwe of missing

Piece: * who, what, when, how, etc." So in a wh-interragative, the wh-element is put first no

amatter whal functions it has in the mood structure of the clause like: subject, adjunel, conjuncl

or complement, etc The meaning is I want to tell you the person, thing, time, manner,etc.

Unlike yes/no questions, wh-information questions always contain a presupposition

For instance, when we ask the question " What did John do?" we presume thal John did in fact

2a, How did they doit? ‘Thay did it somehow

2b Where did John go? John went somewhere

2c Whose ook was stolen? Someone's book was stolen

2d What has he done? Ile has done something

26 Who is doing it? Someone is doing it

1.12.2 Wh-rhetorical questions

Sometimes a question using a wh-ward is a rhetarical question Rhetorical questians

take the form of questions, bul they arc not really used for sccking information Tn fact they đo

‘not expect an answer at all In many cases they are simply expressing a strong opinion or

feeling of the part of the speaker, rather than expecting a response from the person they are speaking lo

Eg 1 Who does she think she is? She had no right to use my conyputer

2 What on earth do you think you are doing? H's my private land

1.2 English operators

in a wh-question, the wh-word is often followed by a verb and this verb sometimes takes the form of a modal verb such as can, could, may, might, cte, or an auxiliary verb, such

as do, be or have, ete

‘These modal verbs or auxiliaries are called aperators Operator is the term that is given to the part of the verbal group that comes before the sptil int a question

Eạ 1 ds the litte girl sleeping?

2 Does she still love you?

3 How long have you been waiting for me?

In the three examples above, is, Does and have are the operators Operators are very necessary when we want to forin a question In an English question, there is often the

inversion of subject and the operator If there is no auxiliary in the statement, do is introduced

as the operator in the question Lexical he and Aave in British English can also act as the

operator:

Eg 1 What do yeu often do in your free tine?

2 How are the students?

3, What have you here?

1.3 Questian words

Question words are often introduced by wh-form A question word is used to ask for a supply to the missing information, They are called wh- question words because they generally dogin with wh-, with an exception being How The wh-word may be a pronoun, an adverb, or a determiner ( i.e it introduces a noun phrase) The question words are who, whom, whose, which, what, where, when, why, and how

13.1, Wheoword functions

L341 Wh-words as interragative pronouns

Wh-words in questions can be called intcrrogative pronouns because these two kinds

of pronouns share some charactiristics According to Quirk ( 1978), both of them are used to replace nouns, rather whole noun phrases, since they can nol generally oceur with determiners such as the definite article or premodification, He also states that there are five wh-words can

be used as pronouns such a3.who, whom, whase, what, and which

Who, whom and whose arc subjective, objcctive, and genitive case forms respectively, and have personal gender However, what and which do not have gender or case distinction

‘They can be used to ask questions about not only persons but about things

‘As a pronoun, the intcrrogative pronouns can be used as the subjects, objects of the

questions

‘Most of the interrogative pronouns can act as the subjects of the wh-questions except

wham, even whose can also appear alone as an anaphoric nom phrase:

Eg 1, Who taught you some Italian?

2 Which is his father's car?

3 What happened?

4 Whose won?

Who, whom, which, and what can be used as an object of a verb or a prepositional

complement

Eg 5 Whofn) did you meet af the purty last night?

6, Which do you want to buy, this one or that one?

7 What did your friend give you yesterday?

However, when used as an object, whom is considered to be more formal and only wham can normally follow the preposition In daily conversations, who is normally used

Eg 8 To whom are you writing?

9 Who are vou writing lo?

10, Whom are you writing to?

Both who and whom can lake inilial position, as in (9) and (10), leaving the preposition

deferred at the end of the clause

Unlike who, whom, what can be used both with personal and non-personal reference

However, when uscd to refer to people what as pronoun is limited to questions about profcssion, role, status,cte

ig 11 A: What's the man overthere?

B: Me's a doctor

As a pronoun, whet acts as a head of a noun phrase to identity certain kinds of property,

profession, religion, race, nationality ete

Eg 12.4: What'y your address?

B: It's $2 Quang Trung, Hai Duong

13, What is your nationality?

B: Int Vietnamese

14,4: What is your father doing now?

B: He's repairing my old bike

10

(deferred) position; but with an initial preposition, the construction is formal and rather rare

Bg 16 What are they looking for?

17, About what are they talking?

Quitk (1978) divides interrogative pronouns into two subtypes: Indefinite and definite aerrogatives Who and which can be used to refer to persons while wha and which are uscd torefer to things

F.g 18 Who is the most famous foathaller in your counwry?

19, Which is the most famous footballer, Hong Son, Huynh Due or Cong Minh?

20 What is your favourite book?

21 Which do vou prefer, this book or that one?

In the cxample 18, who is used as an indefinite intcrrogative pronoun which refers to person

In this question, the addresser does not refer to any footballer in particular He asks a general question, Which in question 19 refers to person and which in question 21 refers lo things

However, both of them refer to limited choice Which here implies lunited number of

footballers or books And what in question 20 is used in general, too

4.3.4.2 Wh-words as determiners

According to Quirk (1978), the three question words whose, what and which can be uscd as a determiner ‘[herefore, they can introduce a personal as well as a non-personal noun phrase:

Tig 1 Whose house is that?

2 What colour is your var?

3 Which coat is yours, this ane or that one?

Like the inlerrogative pronouns (which and what), whet is used as an indefinite determiner and

which serves as a definite determiner These two determiners have both personal and non-

‘personal reference

Interrogative determiners with personal nouns:

Ey 4a Whai pop singer do you like best?

4b Which pop singer do yau like best, My Linh or Hong Nhung?

Taterrogative determiners with non-personal nouns

Eg Sa What kind of mobile phone are you sing?

5b Which kind of mobile phone are you using, Nokia or Samsung?

11

In the pairs above, which implies that the choics is made from a limited number of altematives which cxist in the context of discussion The allertalives arc olen made explicit

Sometimes, which can be used without being made explicit, However, in that case the speaker

who asks such question assumes that there is a definite set of alternatives from which a choice

can be made

E.g 6, Which 1-shirt would you like to try on?

Tn this case, a shop keeper wishes fo ask a customer who wanls to try on a T-shirt in a fashion

shop

1.3.1.3 Wh-word as adverbs

After having deeply researched wh-pronouns, I would like to consider the next open word clauscs, that is adverb According to Huddleston ( 1984) " an adverb is traditionally

defined as a word that modifies a verb, an object or an adverb."

Where and When

‘As an adverb, where and when ocour as head of a phrase and function as complement

of goal or complement? adjunct of a place:

Fig 1 Where are you going for this swumer vacation?

2, When did he start his work yesterday?

Moreover, they can be found in some cases in noun phrases which act as subjects

Bg 1 When wauld be most suitable for you?

2 Where would be good for your holiday?

Why - an adverb

We often find thal the wh-word wép oflen heads a phrase which functions as an adjuncl of a

reason, It is often used to ask about a reason of a purpose of an action:

Eg 1 Why did you give him that book?

2 Why were you absent from the class yesterday morning?

How - an adverb ( degree or nummer) or ant adjective

We often use How to ask about the manner or degree It can also be used with an adjective to ask about the quality of something

Eg 1 Haw did he complete his work?

2 Haw old is your new English teacher?

12

1.4, Given-New Information Structure

AJ Given information

Given information is a linguistic term that Halliday (1976) uses to define the information that " expresses what the speaker is presenting as information that is recoverable from some sourec or other in the environment - the situation or the preceding text.” Morcover,

according to Kumo (1972), " given information is an element in a sentence that represents old,

predictable information.” A given piece of information is common knowledge, a part of the extralingnistic context or something that is previously established in the discourse

Given information can also be identified in tem of intonation It is also spoken with little stress and it is often reduced, abbreviated or ellipsed Most kinds of discourse have implicit speakers and addressees, intcractors always take first and second speaker pronouns to

-to be known to/assumed by the addressee

- previously established in the discourse

New information is usually strzssed and expressed in more claborate fashions

4.3 Information structure

The ability to understand a sentence or a text depends on the order of the information

In both spoken and written language, given or old information should put in tiont of new information or we can say the given information is placed in the left side of the sentence or in the theme position and new information fottows the given, or known information

‘The information structure should obey the following rules

13

- Sentences should begin with the information already introduced to the reader

This is achieved through, beginning a sentence with words or phrases from the

preceding sentence

- Sentences should end with new information that is unfamiliar to the reader

This new information can then become the given information in the next

sentence.”

£54 Theme-Rheme Structure

Theme and Rheme are the fundamental structural pattems in the English language According to [lalliday ( 1994) "Theme is indicated by its position in the clause In writing English we signal that an item has thomatic status by potting it first, No other signal is

necessary "

For example, in simall contexl such as a simple sentence, theme and theme can be described as followed,

Eg 1 My fauher has given up smoking

Tn the scntence above, the derma of the scntonec is the subject my /iuher and the rheme

is the rest of the sentence ( the predicate) ‘Lhe subject is what we are talking about and the prodivae is whal we say abou iL However, the thame is not always the subject of the sentence Let's consider the following example

E.g2 Once upon a time, an old man and his wife lived on the shore of the blue sea

Onec upon # time an old mau and his wile lived on the shore of the bluz

sea

The Theme is the element which serves as the point of

departure of the massage, it is that with which the clause is

concerned, The rest of the message, the part in which the Theme is developed is called the Rheme

(Halliday 1995: 374”

Summing up, we can say that English sentences start with a Theme, the first clement in the

sentence, which normally contains information which we somehow know about and that they

continue wilh a Rheme, which normally tells us something new aboul the Theme

i the claus:

coneemed”, Clearly questions arc, usually, conscrned with getting informattion ot answers, #0 in

a sentence like

| When diel Mary buy the car?

‘The Theme is made up of the wh-element, The wh-element is that the speaker wants to know,

‘The wh-word can stand on its own, or the whole wh-phrase may make up the Theme

What kind of book did you give your daughler on her last tarthday?

15

1.6 Presuppasitian

In the prauading parl, information stmcture and theme and theme have been đỉscusscd In everyday context, a question is often made to ask for some information that the speaker has not known, However, the speaker assumes that certain information has already known by the hearer, As we know that such information will gencrally not be stated and therefore we will count it as part of what 1s communicated not said ‘The following part is designed to illustrate some aspects of implicit assuetiplion-presupposition

It can not be denied that presuppostion is of great importance when one wants to produce as well as comprehend a speech act There have been a large number of definitions of presuppositions which present different views of scholars towards the concept

Common views consider prenysposition to be a background belicf, relating to an utterance It

is what both the addresser and addressee already know and assume so that the utterance will

be appropriate in comtexl, Ht will generally remain a necessary assumption whether the

ullerance is placed in the farm of an assertion, denial, or question, and can be associated with

a specific lexical item or grammatical feature in the utterance.*

There have existed many definitions by various linguists

According to Hudson (2000) " a presupposition is something assumed { presupposed) to ba true ina sentence which asserts other information” And Brown and Yule (F983) defines thal

"Presupposition is the assumption the speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept

without challenge" On the other hand, Levison (1997) states that one of the properties of the

presupposition ts that they are liable to evaporate in certain coniext, either tmmediate

Finguistic or the less immediate discourse context, or in circumstance where contrary

assumptions are made.“

In short, presupposition oceurs when the utterance tells the hearer that what the speaker

is talking is quite clear, whether in positive or negative form

* http://www sil org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticlenms/ WhatisAPresupposition

Ý www mobabylon.eđu ig/ /articles/Tntailment9i20.&%20Presnpposition pdf

16

Chapter 2 The structural and semantic patterns of English wh- questions

In the last chapter, the author has deeply discussed some relevant matters relating to English wh-questions, in this chapter, the author would like to examine the structural pattern

of the wh-questions in general and then he will thoroughly illustrate the use of wh-questions in daily discourse and finally he will discuss some types of semantic features of the wh-questions

+ presuppositions,

2.1, STRUCTURAL PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS

2.LL Whowords as subjects of the wh-questions

In this first part of chapter 2, the author would like to discuss in order to find out the structure for the wh-questions in which the question words act as the subjects of the sentences

When asking about the subjects of the wh-questions, we often use suct wh-words as

what, who, whose, which, how much+ noun(noncount) and how meny + Noun (pb)

For example: 1 Who helped you to finish the work yesterday?

2 What happened last night?

3 How much money is spent on advertismy everyday?

4, How many people took part in the games last Sunday?

When the wh-element acts as the subject of the question, there is no change in the order

of the sentence element The wh-elemeni stands at the beginning of the question In such

tenses as the simple present and the simple past, we do not add auxiliary verbs like do or did

Lel’s consider the two Grst examples In the example 1, we sce thal the

subject is who, and the predicate is everything else The question is formed by

putting the wh- word who into the subject position The question is about the

subject of the sentences The speaker knows cverything-someone helped you to

finish the work yesterday, but doesn't know who In the second one, the subject

is what, and the predicate is everything else ‘Ihe question is about the subject

of the senlonce: something happened The question is formed by puting the

wh- word what into the subject position No other changes are needed to make

a question-olher than (he question mark, of course ©

A subject wh-question is an open question, it means that this kind of question can have any sumer of answers It asks about missing inforrnation the speaker necds about the subject of the sentence (performer of the action) A question element needs to precede the subject in order to form this question The “question element” is formed according Lo the fallowing ruls

To form a subject Wh-question in English, replace the subject with a question word,

‘using who (for people) or what (for non-person) The word order is that of a positive sentence

There is no auxiliary verb in subject wh-questions in the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses The question word simply replaces the subject The formular for this type of question

is

SubjectWh + finite verb However, do can be used after a subject question word for emphasis, to insist on an answer

5 Well tell us - what did happen when your father found you?

6 So who did marry the Princess al the end?

When who, what and which serve as the subjects of the wh-questions, They can bz considered either singular or plural form The following pairs of exarnples iflustrale this:

7a Who is in favour of the proposal?

76 Wha are in favour of the proposal?

8a Which member of the carbinet leaked the information to the press ?

Sb Which members of the carbinet leaked the information to the press?

Whether the wh-word is singular or plural depends on the sitvation and the presupposition of the speaker

Let's consider the first pair 7a and 7b This pair of examples is given by a chairman as

pat of a voting procedure

hitp:/iwww2.psu.edweslhpb/grammar/lecture 10/quest answers.heml

On the other hand, in pair 82 and 8b, leaking a certain piece of information typically seems lo be an individual activily, though certainly several people could be involved in il as well, Therefore, it is normal to use the singular form

These considerations seem to conclude that there is no clear grammatical distinction between singular and plural forms of wh-words

question However, lexieal Be and Have in British English can also sarve as an operator

1 Who did you meet at the reunion party yesterday?

2 When did your father give up smoking?

3 How lang have you heen waiting for me?

Let's consider the example number 1 In this question, the presupposition

of this question is that " You met someone at the reunion party vesterday" ‘the

subjcel of the sentence is Yor, The predicate is met someone at the reunion

party yesterday, The total sentence that lies behind the question: You met

someone at the reunion party yesterday The unknown information is the direct

object of the verb me/ From question 1, we can withdraw the following mule:

First of all, replace someone by who: You mel who al the reunion party

yesterday? ‘then invert who to the front of the question’ Who you met at the

reunton party? Finally, add the operator (did) in front of the subject and tam

19

the simple past verb mer into meet ‘The question would be Who did you meet at

the reunion party yesterday?

In this case we can use whom instead of who However, it is rather formal and unlikely

to be used in asking a question like this one In fact, native speakers do not often use whom in this type of question daily

‘The structure of the question above is : WhoWhom + operator + Subject + verb?

‘The same procedures can be applied to question

Questions words and expressions can be used to ask for most kinds of word- for

example a subject (who, what which), and object (who, whom, what), a determiner ( what, which, whose), an adjective ( what dike) or an adverbial expression ( where, when, why, how) However, there is no simple word or expression that can be used to ask for a verb Kor this purpose, we normally make a sentence using whar with do

| What are you doing next weekend? Resting

The answer to what .do can include a verb together with what follows it

2 What's Llelen doing? Getting all the rubbish out of the car

To ask for a transitive verb when the subject and the object are both mentioned, we use whet

1]

3 What have vou done to your leg? Broken it

4 What are you doing with my canera?

2.4 Wh-questions with prepositions

When a question word is the object of a preposition, the preposition most often comes

al the ond of the clause, especially in informal usage For example:

1 Who is the present for?

° hfip://www2.psu.ed/eslbpb/eranuuarđectrưe 10/quest answers htral

2 What are you looking at?

3 Where did she buy it from?

Some questions consist simply of question ward + preposition

4 What with?

5 Who for?

6 Where to?

Towever, this structure ts unusual when there is a noun wilh the question word In this

case, preposition often precedes the question word

7 With what money?

On the other hand, in a more formal styl

, 4 preposition is often put earlier in questions, before the question words

8 With whom did she go?

Tlowever, in a very format style, prepositions are not oflsn put al the beginning of questions which have "be" as the main verb

9 Who is it for, madan:?

Moreover, some situelures such as "where la? what like? and what for? have fixed

order We oftcn do not put the preposition at the beginning of the questions before the question words in these cases

10 Where shall I send it to?

11, What does she look like?

12 What did she buy that for?

2.13 Emphatic wh-questions

There are a couple of ways to show surprise, dismay, or perplexity when asking wh-

questions One is to add an expletive after the wh-ward The following are some mild cxamples

1 What on earth have you done to yourself?

2 Where the hell have you been all this morning?

3 Why the devil did they leave so early?