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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