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Indirect Questions - Caution - Pronouns - Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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PRONOUNS IN INDIRECT QUESTIONS


[Sidenote: _Special caution needed here._]


127. It is sometimes hard for the student to tell a relative from an

interrogative pronoun. In the regular direct question the

interrogative is easily recognized; so is the relative when an

antecedent is close by. But compare the following in pairs:--


1. (_a_) Like a gentleman of leisure _who_ is strolling out for

pleasure.


(_b_) Well we knew _who_ stood behind, though the earthwork hid

them.


2. (_a_) But _what_ you gain in time is perhaps lost in power.


(_b_) But _what_ had become of them they knew not.


3. (_a_) These are the lines _which_ heaven-commanded Toil shows on

his deed.


(_b_) And since that time I thought it not amiss To judge _which_

were the best of all these three.


In sentences 1 (_a_), 2 (_a_) and 3 (_a_) the regular relative use is

seen; _who_ having the antecedent _gentleman_, _what_ having the

double use of pronoun and antecedent, _which_ having the antecedent

_lines_.


But in 1 (_b_), 2 (_b_), and 3 (_b_), there are two points of

difference from the others considered: first, no antecedent is

expressed, which would indicate that they are not relatives; second, a

question is disguised in each sentence, although each sentence as a

whole is declarative in form. Thus, 1 (_b_), if expanded, would be,

"Who stood behind? We knew," etc., showing that _who_ is plainly

interrogative. So in 2 (_b_), _what_ is interrogative, the full

expression being, "But what had become of them? They knew not."

Likewise with _which_ in 3 (_b_).


[Sidenote: _How to decide._]


In studying such sentences, (1) see whether there is an antecedent of

_who_ or _which_, and whether _what_ = _that_ + _which_ (if so, it is

a simple relative; if not, it is either an indefinite relative or an

interrogative pronoun); (2) see if the pronoun introduces an indirect

question (if it does, it is an interrogative; if not, it is an

indefinite relative).


[Sidenote: _Another caution._]


128. On the other hand, care must be taken to see whether the

pronoun is the word that really _asks the question_ in an

interrogative sentence. Examine the following:--


1. Sweet rose! whence is this hue

_Which_ doth all hues excel?

--DRUMMOND


2. And then what wonders shall you do

_Whose_ dawning beauty warms us so?

--WALKER


3. Is this a romance? Or is it a faithful picture of _what_ has

lately been in a neighboring land?--MACAULAY



These are interrogative sentences, but in none of them does the

pronoun ask the question. In the first, _whence_ is the interrogative

word, _which_ has the antecedent _hue_. In the second, _whose_ has the

antecedent _you_, and asks no question. In the third, the question is

asked by the verb.





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